The Tech Humanist Show: Episode 5 – Dr. Safiya U. Noble

The Tech Humanist Show explores how data and technology shape the human experience. It's recorded live each week in a live-streamed video program before it's made available in audio format. Hosted by Kate O’Neill. About this episode's guest: 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, Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism (NYU Press). She tweets as @safiyanoble. This episode streamed live on Thursday, August 13, 2020. Highlights: 2:00 What has it been like in your life and work to have authored a category-defining book? 4:16 how the conversation has changed 6:57 career arc 7:06 theater! 09:09 influences 10:55 audience question: when you're teaching on this, what activities resonate with your students 16:36 "what the humanities and social sciences do is they give you a really great vocabulary for talking about the things you care about and for you know looking at them closely" 17:36 algorithms offline? 19:38 what is the Center for Critical Internet Inquiry at UCLA doing? (site: c2i2.ucla.edu) 20:17 big announcement! 29:07 the challenges for companies want to address the oppression in their own tech 47:56 what makes you hopeful? (BEAUTIFUL answer)