Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism
Dr. Safiya Umoja Noble is an Associate Professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in the Department of Information Studies where she serves as the Co-Director of the UCLA Center for Critical Internet Inquiry. She is the author of a best-selling book on racist and sexist algorithmic bias in commercial search engines, entitled
Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism (NYU Press), which has been widely-reviewed in journals and periodicals including the Los Angeles Review of Books, featured in the
New York Public Library 2018 Best Books for Adults (non-fiction), and recognized by Bustle magazine as one of
10 Books about Race to Read Instead of Asking a Person of Color to Explain Things to You.
Safiya is the recipient of a Hellman Fellowship and the UCLA Early Career Award. Her 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. She is regularly quoted for her expertise on issues of algorithmic discrimination and technology bias by national and international press including
The Guardian, the BBC,
CNN International,
USA Today,
Wired, Time,
Full Frontal with Samantha Bee,
The New York Times, and
Virginia Public Radio, and a host of local news and podcasts, including
Science Friction, and
Science Friday to name a few. Recently, she was named in the “Top 25 Doers, Dreamers, and Drivers of 2019” by
Government Technology magazine.
Dr. Noble is the co-editor of two edited volumes:
The Intersectional Internet: Race, Sex, Culture, and Class Online and
Emotions, Technology & Design. She currently serves as an Associate Editor for the
Journal of Critical Library and Information Studies, and is the co-editor of the Commentary & Criticism section of the
Journal of Feminist Media Studies. She is a member of several academic journals and advisory boards, including
Taboo: The Journal of Culture and Education. She holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in Library & Information Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and a B.A. in Sociology from California State University, Fresno where she was recently awarded the Distinguished Alumni Award for 2018.
