Professor, UC-Berkeley, 2007-2021

Director of research, Data & Society, 2021-2023

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bio

From 2007 to 2022 I was a faculty member at the School of Information at UC-​Berkeley. I was granted tenure in 2013 and promoted to full professor in 2021 and ​continue to advise several PhD students in the School. While at UC-Berkeley I was ​co-director of the Algorithmic Fairness and Opacity Group (AFOG) with law scholar ​Deirdre Mulligan, which brought together faculty and students from across campus ​to facilitate research on how algorithmic systems can be designed, used, or ​regulated to support more equitable and just societies. The AFOG team organized ​several events including a 2018 workshop and the Refusal Conference in 2020.


Seeking an opportunity to ensure research on technology in society had an impact ​in the world, I joined Data & Society as the Director of Research in 2021 and served ​in this role for two years. In 2023 I took a hiatus from Academia. As of now (the ​summer of 2024) I’m currently living in Yokohama, Japan with my family and working ​toward Japanese language proficiency.


My research focuses on how marginalized communities adapt digital technologies to ​meet their needs and to pursue their goals and ideals. I am interested especially in ​ways of protecting human control and autonomy in the wake of artificial intelligence. ​I am the author of Invisible Users: Youth in the Internet Cafes of Urban Ghana (MIT ​Press) as well as several widely cited articles including: “How the Machine Thinks: ​understanding opacity in machine learning algorithms” and “The Society of ​Algorithms” (with Marion Fourcade). My publications span the areas of Science and ​Technology Studies, Sociology, Communications / New Media Studies, and ​interdisciplinary Computer Science (i.e. HCI, AI Ethics). I earned a PhD in sociology ​from the London School of Economics and a BA in computer science from Cornell ​University.


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I’m located in Yokohama, Japan (GMT +9). You can reach me by email at jenna1 at ​gmail.


Our special issue titled, “Ideologies of AI and the Consolidation of Power” came out ​in the April 2024 issue of the online journal First Monday. Thanks to my co-editor ​Jacob Metcalf (Data & Society). With an incredible range of thought-provoking ​contributions from authors: Shazeda Ahmed, Klaudia Jaźwińska, Archana Ahlawat, ​Amy Winecoff, Mona Wang, Meg Young, Upol Ehsan, Ranjit Singh, Emnet Tafesse, ​Michele Gilman, Christina Harrington, Timnit Gebru, Émile P. Torres, Abeba Birhane, ​Jelle van Dijk, Frank Pasquale, Norah Abokhodair, Yarden Skop, Sarah Rüller, ​Konstantin Aal, Houda Elmimouni, and Esther Mwema.


My piece (several years in the making!) which relates AI developments and political ​philosophy is now published, “Automated Decision-Making as Domination.”


“The Society of Algorithms” which I co-authored with Marion Fourcade (UC-​Berkeley) is out in the 2021 Annual Review of Sociology. Please get in touch if you’d ​like a copy and can’t get past the paywall.