Ranjit Singh is a senior researcher at Data & Society, conducting qualitative research for the Algorithmic Impact Methods Lab. With a particular focus on research equity, he also helps guide the ethics of our work and plan equitable research practices both internally and with our external partners. Singh’s work examines the everyday experiences of people subject to data-driven practices and follows the mutual shaping of their lives and their data records, aiming to understand how data is increasingly used to imagine and develop new digital solutions for democratizing inclusion. His research sits at the intersection of data infrastructures, global development, and public policy, and uses methods of interview-based qualitative sociology and multi-sited ethnography.

Singh’s dissertation research on Aadhaar, the national biometrics-based identification infrastructure of India, advances public understanding of the affordances and limits of such data infrastructures in practically achieving inclusive development and reshaping the nature of Indian citizenship. He was involved in developing the Digital Due Process Clinic, a clinical program at Cornell University that studies and supports individuals in their struggles to secure fair representation in data infrastructures. His research has been published in the Journal of South Asian Studies and by ACM CHI Conference, among other venues, and he has presented his work at conferences including CSCW, 4S, AAA, and ECSAS. Singh has a doctorate in Science and Technology Studies from Cornell University.