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Safiya Noble

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Safiya Noble
Known forAlgorithms of Oppression
AwardsMacArthur Fellow
Academic background
Alma materCalifornia State University, Fresno
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
ThesisSearching for black girls: old traditions in new media (2012)
Academic work
InstitutionsUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

University of California, Los Angeles

University of Southern California
Websitehttps://safiyaunoble.com/

Safiya Umoja Noble is the David O. Sears Presidential Endowed Chair of Social Sciences and Professor of Gender Studies, African American Studies, and Information Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is the director of the UCLA Center on Race & Digital Justice and co-director of the Minderoo Initiative on Tech & Power at the UCLA Center for Critical Internet Inquiry (C2i2). She serves as interim director of the UCLA DataX Initiative, leading work in critical data studies.

Noble is the author of a bestselling book on racist and sexist algorithmic harm in commercial search engines, entitled Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism (New York University Press), which has been widely reviewed in scholarly and popular publications. In 2021, she was recognized as a MacArthur Fellow for her groundbreaking work on algorithmic bias.

She is a board member of the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative, which serves those vulnerable to online harassment, and provides expertise to a number of civil and human rights organizations. She is a research associate at the Oxford Internet Institute, where she is a chartering member of the International Panel on the Information Environment. In 2022, she was recognized as the inaugural NAACP-Archewell Digital Civil Rights Award recipient.

She was appointed a commissioner to the University of Oxford Commission on AI and Good Governance in 2020.[1] In 2020 she was nominated to the Global Future Council on Artificial Intelligence for Humanity at the World Economic Forum.[2]

Early life and education

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Noble grew up in Fresno, California.[3] She went on to study sociology at California State University, Fresno with a focus on African American studies and ethnic studies.[4] While at Fresno State, Noble was involved with the "campus political scene," protesting against apartheid and campaigning for racial equality and gender equality.[3] She was a member of the Associated Students, Inc. and the California State Student Association.[5] After she graduated, Noble worked for more than a decade in multicultural marketing, advertising, and public relations.[6]

Noble attended the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign for graduate studies where she earned a master's degree and Ph.D. in library and information science.[3][7] Her 2012 dissertation, Searching for black girls: old traditions in new media, considered how gender and race manifest on technology platforms.[8]

Career

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Noble was appointed assistant professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in the Department of African-American Studies, the Department of Media and Cinema Studies, and the Institute for Communication Research.[8] Noble joined the University of California, Los Angeles's Department of Information Studies in 2014.[9] She was awarded the University of California, Los Angeles Early Career Award in 2016.[10][11] The same year she was appointed a Hellman Fellow.[12] Noble received academic tenure at UCLA and was promoted to associate professor in 2018.[13]

Noble joined the University of Southern California from 2017 to 2019 as a visiting assistant professor.[14] At USC, she focused on the politics and human and civil rights concerns of digital media platforms, which includes the integration of these issues in STEM education.[15]

On 25 September 2020, Noble was named as one of the 25 members of the Real Facebook Oversight Board, an independent monitoring group for Facebook.[16] In October 2020, she was featured in conversation with Meghan, Duchess of Sussex and Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex on the harms of technology, and her book Algorithms of Oppression was cited by Meghan, Duchess of Sussex for outlining how "the digital space really shapes our thinking about race."[17][18]

Noble was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2021.[19]

Research

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Noble's academic research focuses on the Internet and its impact on society. Her work is both sociological and interdisciplinary, marking the ways that digital media intersects with issues of race, gender, culture, power, and technology. Her expertise on issues of algorithmic discrimination and technology bias has been covered by Rolling Stone,[20] The Guardian, BBC, CNN International,[21] USA Today,[22] Wired,[23] Full Frontal with Samantha Bee,[24] and The New York Times.[25] Her popular writing includes critiques on the loss of public goods to Big Tech companies.[26]

Her research also focuses on gender, technology, and culture, and how they influence the design and use of the internet.[27] Her work has appeared in academic publications and popular media outlets including Time[28] and Bitch.[29] Noble co-edited the books Emotions, Technology & Design and The Intersectional Internet: Race, Sex, Culture and Class Online.[30][31] She is the co-editor of the "Commentary & Criticism" section of the journal Feminist Media Studies. She is a member of several academic journal and advisory boards including for Taboo: The Journal of Culture and Education, and the Journal of Critical Library and Information Studies.[11][9]

Algorithms of Oppression

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Noble's first book, Algorithms of Oppression, was published by NYU Press in 2018 and has been reviewed in journals such as the Los Angeles Review of Books and was featured in the New York Public Library 2018 Best Books for Adults.[32][33][34] It considers how bias against people of color is embedded into supposedly neutral search engines.[34] It explores how racism, especially Anti-Black racism, is generated, maintained, and reproduced by the internet.[28][35] In it, Noble is concerned with looking at the ways the Black community is commercialized by technology companies. She focuses on companies like Google and Facebook and how their algorithms "black-box" information; for example, when a search term is entered, it is unclear how results for the search are derived. Her work aims to change the perceptions of marginalized people in technology.[36] She blogged about "Digital Infrastructures of Race and Gender" for the Fotomuseum's online platform.[37] She has also given talks and interviews about Algorithms of Oppression.[38][39][40][41][42][43]

Select publications

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  • Noble, Safiya Umoja (2018). Algorithms of oppression: how search engines reinforce racism. New York University Press. ISBN 9781479837243. OCLC 1029007986.
  • Noble, Safiya U.; Austin, Jeanie; Sweeney, Miriam E.; McKeever, Lucas; Sullivan, Elizabeth (2013). "Changing Course: Collaborative Reflections of Teaching/Taking "Race, Gender, and Sexuality in the Information Professions"". Journal of Education for Library and Information Science. 55 (3): 212–222. ISSN 0748-5786.
  • Noble, Safiya U. (15 January 2017). "Google and the Misinformed Public". The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved 6 February 2019.

Edited volumes

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References

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  1. ^ "New Commission to Address AI and Good Governance in Public Policy". Oxford Internet Institute. 28 July 2020. Retrieved 2024-09-24.
  2. ^ "Global Future Council on Artificial Intelligence for Humanity". World Economic Forum. Archived from the original on 9 October 2020.
  3. ^ a b c Munro, Donald (19 April 2018). "When Google gets it wrong: Safiya Noble exposes how search engines reinforce racism". The Munro Review. Retrieved 24 September 2024.
  4. ^ "Safiya U. Noble". USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. Archived from the original on 7 February 2019. Retrieved 6 February 2019.
  5. ^ Kaur, Bineet (23 April 2018). "Is Google's algorithm racially biased? This Fresno State alumna thinks so". The Collegian. Retrieved 6 February 2019.
  6. ^ "Spotlight on Safiya Umoja Noble". Department of African-American Studies | University of Illinois. Archived from the original on 7 February 2019. Retrieved 6 February 2019.
  7. ^ McDonald, John (25 October 2018). "Safiya Umoja Noble Receives Top Honor from Fresno State". UCLA GSE&IS Ampersand. Archived from the original on 7 February 2019. Retrieved 6 February 2019.
  8. ^ a b Noble, Safiya Umoja (December 2012). Searching for black girls: old traditions in new media (PhD thesis). University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
  9. ^ a b Harmon, Joanie (15 July 2014). "Safiya U. Noble: Scholar of Critical Digital Media Studies Joins IS Faculty". UCLA GSE&IS Ampersand. Archived from the original on 14 October 2018. Retrieved 6 February 2019.
  10. ^ "Awards". UCLA GSEIS Information Studies. Archived from the original on 7 February 2019. Retrieved 6 February 2019.
  11. ^ a b Hudson, Marc (9 May 2018). "Generosity and conviviality in the age of algorithmic oppression: #Manchester #odmnoble". marchudson.net. Retrieved 2024-09-24.
  12. ^ "Safiya Noble". Stanford HAI. Retrieved 2024-09-24.
  13. ^ Noble, Safiya Umoja (January 2019). "SAFIYA UMOJA NOBLE, Ph.D." (PDF). Safiya U. Noble. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 March 2022. Retrieved 15 March 2019.
  14. ^ "Lunch Keynote with Dr. Safiya Umoja Noble: Social Justice in LIS, Finding the Imperative to Act". 2017 MLA Annual Conference. Retrieved 31 May 2018.
  15. ^ "Safiya Noble (University of Southern California)". UCSD Design Lab. Retrieved 24 September 2024.
  16. ^ Solon, Olivia (25 September 2020). "While Facebook works to create an oversight board, industry experts formed their own". NBC News. Retrieved 24 September 2024.
  17. ^ Dockterman, Eliana (20 October 2020). "Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Discuss Misinformation With Silicon Valley's Biggest Critics". TIME. Retrieved 24 September 2024.
  18. ^ Royston, Jack (27 August 2020). "Meghan Markle Praises Prince Harry as Feminist Father to Baby Archie". Newsweek. Retrieved 20 November 2020.
  19. ^ Stevens, Matt; Schuessler, Jennifer (28 September 2021). "MacArthur Foundation Announces 2021 'Genius' Grant Winners". The New York Times. Retrieved 28 September 2021.
  20. ^ O'Neil, Lorena (12 August 2023). "These Women Tried to Warn Us About AI". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 24 September 2024.
  21. ^ Should you delete Facebook in Protest? (Video). 27 March 2018. Retrieved 24 September 2024 – via YouTube.
  22. ^ Noble, Safiya U.; Roberts, Sarah T. (12 November 2016). "Targeting race in ads is nothing new, but the stakes are high". USA Today. Retrieved 24 September 2024.
  23. ^ Noble, Safiya Umoja (4 March 2018). "Social Inequality Will Not Be Solved By an App". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 24 September 2024.
  24. ^ Brown, Tracy (21 March 2019). "Sasheer Zamata's 'Full Frontal' segment confronts racial bias in technology". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 24 September 2024.
  25. ^ Manjoo, Farhad (30 August 2018). "Here's the Conversation We Really Need to Have About Bias at Google". The New York Times. Retrieved 24 September 2024.
  26. ^ Noble, Safiya (1 July 2020). "The Loss Of Public Goods To Big Tech". Noema.
  27. ^ "Two New Senior Research Fellows to Join the Oxford Internet Institute". Oxford Internet Institute. 28 October 2018. Archived from the original on 7 February 2019. Retrieved 6 February 2019.
  28. ^ a b Noble, Safiya (26 March 2018). "Google Has a Striking History of Bias Against Black Girls". Time. Retrieved 6 February 2019.
  29. ^ "The Frontier Issue". Bitch Media (54). Spring 2012. Archived from the original on 7 February 2019. Retrieved 6 February 2019.
  30. ^ Noble, Safiya Umoja; Tynes, Brendesha M., eds. (2016). The intersectional Internet: race, sex, class and culture online. New York: Peter Lang. ISBN 9781433130007. OCLC 918150002.
  31. ^ Tettegah, Sharon; Noble, Safiya, eds. (28 December 2015). Emotions, Technology, and Design. Academic Press. ISBN 9780128018392.
  32. ^ "NYPL 2018 Best Books for Adults". New York Public Library. Archived from the original on 24 March 2023.
  33. ^ "In 'Algorithms of Oppression,' Safiya Noble finds old stereotypes persist in new media". USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. 16 February 2018. Retrieved 31 May 2018.
  34. ^ a b "Algorithms of Oppression | How Search Engines Reinforce Racism". NYU Press. Retrieved 31 May 2018.
  35. ^ "Algorithms of Oppression". Data & Society. 15 May 2018. Retrieved 24 September 2024.
  36. ^ Noble, Safiya Umoja (2018). Algorithms of Oppression: How search engines reinforce racism. New York University Press. ISBN 978-1-4798-4994-9.
  37. ^ Noble, Safiya Umoja. "Digital Infrastructures of Race and Gender". Fotomuseum Winterthur. Retrieved 24 September 2024.
  38. ^ "Safiya U. Noble, Ph.D." Stratelligence. Archived from the original on 14 October 2018.
  39. ^ Safiya Umoja Noble - 'Just Google It': Algorithms of Oppression, 14 December 2015, retrieved 31 May 2018
  40. ^ Algorithms of Oppression: Safiya Umoja Noble, 28 February 2018, retrieved 31 May 2018
  41. ^ Noble, Safiya (12 August 2017). "Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism". Open Transcripts. Retrieved 31 May 2018.
  42. ^ "Digital Futures – Safiya Umoja Noble". Concordia University. Retrieved 31 May 2018.
  43. ^ Dickey, Megan Rose (27 January 2018). "CTRL+T podcast: Artificial intelligence may become a human rights issue". TechCrunch. Retrieved 31 May 2018.
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Scholia has an author profile for Safiya Noble.
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