2024 > Organisers

Organisers

Juliane Jarke

Professor of Digital Societies, University of Graz

Juliane Jarke is Professor of Digital Societies at the University of Graz. Her research attends to the increasing importance of digital data and algorithmic systems in the public sector, education and for ageing populations. She received her PhD in Organisation, Work and Technology from Lancaster University and has a background in computer science, philosophy and STS. She has recently co-edited a special issue on Care-ful Data Studies (Information, Communication and Society). Her latest co-edited books include Algorithmic Regimes: Methods, Interactions and Politics (Amsterdam University Press) and Dialogues in Data Power: Shifting Response-abilities in a Datafied World (Bristol University Press). More on www.sociodigitalfutures.info

Janaki Srinivasan

Associate Professor and Convenor, Centre for Information Technology and Public Policy (CITAPP), IIIT Bangalore; Co-investigator, Fairwork India

Janaki Srinivasan is Associate Professor at IIIT Bangalore. Her research examines the political economy of information technology-based development initiatives. She uses ethnographic research to examine how gender, caste and class shape the use of such technologies. Her work has explored these interests in the context of Indian digital inclusion initiatives focussed on community computer centres, mobile phones, identity systems and open information systems. Her work explores privacy, algorithmic control and the role of intermediaries in digital transactions, with an emphasis on the domains of financial inclusion, work automation, and the gig economy.

Amit Prakash

Professor, Centre for IT and Public Policy (CITAPP), IIIT Bangalore

Amit Prakash is Professor at IIIT Bangalore. His interests lie in Information Systems and Public Policy, particularly as they intersect with development sectors such as public health & nutrition, education & skill development, and food & livelihood security. The focus of his recent research and consulting efforts has been equity and inclusion in matters related to technology designs and policy choices. At IIITB, he serves as the Head of the Department of Digital Humanities and Societal Systems and Convenor of the Centre for Accessibility in the Global South (CAGS)

Gwendolin Barnard

PhD researcher Department of Sociology University of Graz

Gwendolin Barnard is a PhD researcher at the department of Sociology at University of Graz working on the intersection of AI policy and regulation of work. Their research interests include the regulation of datafication of work, data justice, and worker participation in the accountability of data-driven systems. They hold an MSc in Media and Communications (Data & Society) from the London School of Economics, where they researched the role of data in the negotiation of the management relationship between white-collar workers and their managers. Before starting their PhD studies, they worked at the London-based policy institute ‘Institute for the Future of Work’ where they researched topics including algorithmic impact assessments and affective algorithmic management. They are also part of the research team at the US-based organisation ‘Our Data Bodies – Justice and Human rights’ and conduct research for unions and activist groups organizing against surveillance and algorithmic management in the US-logistics sectors.

Thomas Zenkl

PhD student Department for Sociology, University of Graz HFDT – Human Factor in Digital Transformation reserach network

Thomas Zenkl is a PhD student at the University of Graz. He is interested in the societal consequences of AI and the proliferation of automated decision making. His ongoing PhD research focuses on practices of resistance/refusal that arise from the ongoing colonisation of everyday life by digital systems. He is currently conducting research within the Austrian public employment agency to explore how advanced algorithms, the datafication of unemployment and applications of AI may influence and restructure the delivery of labour market policies, but also what practices affected workers employ to chart their way out of a perceived technological entrapment.

Jo Bates

Professor of Data and Society, Information School, University of Sheffield

Jo Bates is Professor of Data and Society at the University of Sheffield. Jo’s research in Critical Data Studies covers four thematic areas: data cultures, data journeys & friction, climate & environmental data, and digital labour. Jo is currently leading the Patterns in Practice project which explores how practitioners’ beliefs, values and feelings interact to shape how they engage with and in data mining and machine learning across science, education and the arts. Other recent projects include Living with Data and Net-zero Data Frictions.

Tracey P. Lauriault

Assistant Professor, Critical Media and Big Data, Communication and Media Studies, School of Journalism and Communications, Carleton University

Tracey P. Lauriault is Assistant Professor at Carelton University, She is cross Appointed to Digital Humanities, and is board member of the Institute for Data Science at Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario. Her ongoing work on open data, open government, big data, smart cities, and data preservation is international, transdisciplinary, and multi-sectoral. Her current research interests are in digital twins, data brokers, Indigenous data, disaggregated equity data and data governance. Lauriault is one of the founders of the field critical data studies, open data and Open Smart Cities, AI & trust, taking a data and technology governance approach to the shaping of large complex systems. As a publicly engaged scholar, she mobilizes her research into data and technology policy across sectors. As a data and technological citizen, she examines large and small data and technology systems with the hope of making them more just, inclusive, equitable and environmentally sustainable. 

Helen Kennedy

Professor of Digital Society, Department of Sociological Studies, University of Sheffield

Helen Kennedy is Professor of Digital Society at the University of Sheffield where she directs the Digital Good Network and the Living With Data programme of research. She is interested in how digital developments are experienced and how these experiences can inform the work of digital practitioners in ways that overcome inequalities. She is interested in perceptions of datafication, the possibility of data-related agency, trust, equity, justice, and what ‘the digital good’ might look like. Other current projects include Generic Visuals in the News and Patterns in Practice: cultures of data mining in science, education and the arts. Recent books include Data Visualization in Society (Amsterdam University Press, 2020) and Post, Mine, Repeat: social media data mining becomes ordinary (Palgrave MacMillan, 2016). A full list of publications can be found here.