"Algorithms of Oppression..." Safiya Noble, USC
Channel: UCIBrenICS
Date: 2017-12-11

Safiya Noble
Professor, Annenberg School of Communication
University of Southern California

"Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism"

Friday, Dec. 8, 2017

Abstract: The landscape of information is rapidly shifting as new imperatives and demands push to the fore increasing investment in digital technologies. Yet, critical information scholars continue to demonstrate how digital technology and its narratives are shaped by and infused with values that are not impartial, disembodied, or lacking positionality. Technologies consist of a set of social practices, situated within the dynamics of race, gender, class, and politics, and in the service of something -- a position, a profit motive, a means to an end. In this talk, Safiya Umoja Noble, Assistant Professor in the Annenberg School of Communication at USC, will examine the power struggles over representation on the web, and the consequences of marginalization and misrepresentation in commercial information platforms like Google search.

Bio: In the Fall of 2017, Dr. Safiya Umoja Noble joined the faculty of the University of Southern California (USC) Annenberg School of Communication. Previously, she was an assistant professor in the Department of Information Studies in the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at UCLA where she held appointments in the Departments of African American Studies, Gender Studies, and Education. She is a partner in Stratelligence, a firm that specializes in research on information and data science challenges, and is a co-founder of the Information Ethics & Equity Institute, which provides training for organizations committed to transforming their information management practices toward more just, ethical, and equitable outcomes. She is the recipient of a Hellman Fellowship and the UCLA Early Career Award.

Noble's academic research focuses on the design of digital media platforms on the internet and their impact on society. Her work is both sociological and interdisciplinary, marking the ways that digital media impacts and intersects with issues of race, gender, culture, and technology design. Her monograph on racist and sexist algorithmic bias in commercial search engines is entitled Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism (forthcoming, NYU Press).