Current Appointment

Senior Researcher
(Ongoing Aug. 2022)

Researcher
(Feb. 2022 – Jul. 2022)

Postdoctoral Scholar
(Sep. 2020 – Jan. 2022)

ALGORITHMIC IMPACTS METHODS LAB (AIMLab), AI ON THE GROUND INITIATIVE (AIGI), DATA & SOCIETY RESEARCH INSTITUTE

I am a senior researcher at D&S, conducting qualitative research for the AIMLab, dedicated to developing robust methods to evaluate and regulate how algorithmic systems impact everyday life. With a particular focus on research equity, I also help guide research ethics at D&S and plan equitable research practices both internally and with external partners. My work examines the everyday experiences of people subject to data-driven practices and follows the mutual shaping of their lives and their data records, aiming to understand how data is increasingly used to imagine and develop new digital solutions for democratizing inclusion. I also collaborate on a research project on mapping the concepts, keywords, and everyday stories that underlie the meaning(s) and future(s) of data-driven interventions in the Majority World (or the Global South).

Publications

2023

Jacob Metcalf, Ranjit Singh, Emanuel Moss, Emnet Tafesse, and Elizabeth Anne Watkins. ‘Taking Algorithms to Courts: A Relational Approach to Algorithmic Accountability’, in Proceedings of the 2023 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency, FAccT ’23 (New York, USA: ACM, 2023). pp. 1450–62. DOI: 10.1145/3593013.3594092.

Ranjit Singh, “The Decolonial Turn Is on the Road to Contingency.” Information, Communication & Society 26, no. 4 (March 12, 2023): 803–6. DOI: 10.1080/1369118X.2021.1986104.

2022

Ranjit Singh, Rigoberto Lara Guzmán, and Patrick Davison, (eds.) ‘Parables of AI in/from the Majority World: An Anthology‘ (New York: Data & Society Research, December 2022), 191 pages. DOI: ssrn.4258527. URL: https://datasociety.net/library/parables-of-ai-in-from-the-majority-world-an-anthology/

Sareeta Amrute, Ranjit Singh, and Rigoberto Lara Guzmán, ‘A Primer on AI in/from the Majority World: An Empirical Site and a Standpoint‘ and ‘Una guía para entender la inteligencia artificial (IA) en/desde el mundo mayoritario: un lugar empírico y un punto de vista‘ (New York: Data & Society Research Report, September 2022), 44 pages. DOI: ssrn.4199467. URL: https://datasociety.net/library/a-primer-on-ai-in-from-the-majority-world/

Upol Ehsan, Ranjit Singh, Jacob Metcalf, and Mark O. Riedl, ‘The Algorithmic Imprint‘, in Proceedings of the 2022 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency, FAccT ’22 (Hybrid Event, Seoul, Korea: ACM, 2022), 13 pages. DOI: 10.1145/3531146.3533186

2021

Malte Ziewitz and Ranjit Singh, ‘Critical Companionship: Some Sensibilities for Studying the Lived Experience of Data Subjects‘, in Big Data & Society, Vol. 8, no. 2 (2021), pp. 1-13. DOI: 10.1177/20539517211061122.

Ranjit Singh, ‘The Decolonial Turn is on the Road to Contingency‘, in Information, Communication & Society, Online First (Latest Articles, November 2021). DOI: 10.1080/1369118X.2021.1986104

Ranjit Singh and Steven J. Jackson, ‘Seeing like an Infrastructure: Low-resolution Citizens and the Aadhaar Identification Project‘, in Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, Vol. 5, CSCW2, Article 315 (October 2021). DOI: 10.1145/3476056 [   Best Paper Award    Recognition for Contribution to Diversity & Inclusion]

Emanuel Moss, Elizabeth Anne Watkins, Ranjit Singh,  Madeleine Clare Elish, and Jacob Metcalf,  ‘Assembling Accountability: Algorithmic Impact Assessment for the Public Interest‘ (New York: Data & Society Research Report, 2021).

Elizabeth Anne Watkins, Emanuel Moss, Jacob Metcalf, Ranjit Singh, and Madeleine Clare Elish, ‘Governing Algorithmic Systems with Impact Assessments: Six Observations‘, in Proceedings of the 2021 AAAI/ACM Conference on AI, Ethics, and Society, AIES’21 (Virtual Event, USA: ACM, 19–21 May 2021). DOI: 10.1145/3461702.3462580

Jacob Metcalf, Emanuel Moss, Elizabeth Anne Watkins, Ranjit Singh, and Madeleine Clare Elish, ‘Algorithmic Impact Assessments and Accountability: The Co-Construction of Impacts‘, in Proceedings of the 2021 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency, FAccT ’21 (Virtual Event, Canada: ACM, 2021), pp. 735-746. DOI: 10.1145/3442188.3445935.

Up until 2020

Ranjit Singh, ‘Study the Imbrication: A Methodological Maxim to Follow the Multiple Lives of Data‘, in Sandeep Mertia (ed.),  Lives of Data: Essays on Computational Culture in India (Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures, 2020), pp. 51-59.

Ranjit Singh, ‘“The Living Dead”: Orphaning in Aadhaar-enabled Distribution of Welfare Pensions in Rajasthan‘, in PUBLIC Journal: Art Culture Ideas, Vol. 20, no. 60 (2020), pp. 92-104. DOI: 10.1386/public_00008_7.

Ranjit Singh, ‘Give Me a Database and I Will Raise the Nation-State‘, in South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, Vol. 42, no. 3 (2019), pp. 501-518. DOI: 10.1080/00856401.2019.1602810

Ranjit Singh, Chris Hesselbein, Jessica Price and Michael Lynch, ‘Getting “There” from the Ever-Changing “Here”: Following Digital Directions‘, in Janet Vertesi and David Ribes (eds.), digitalSTS: A Field Guide for Science & Technology Studies (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2019), pp. 280-299.  

Ranjit Singh, ‘The Living Dead‘, ‘Action at a Distance‘, and ‘Whose Fault is it anyway?‘, in Annie Sheng (ed.), Whispers from the Field: Ethnographic Poetry and Creative Prose (Ithaca: Cornell Council for the Arts, 2018), pp. 29-39.

Ranjit Singh and Steven J. Jackson, ‘From Margins to Seams: Imbrication, Inclusion, and Torque in the Aadhaar Identification Project‘, in Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (Denver: ACM, 2017), pp. 4776-4824. DOI: 10.1145/3025453.3025910

Ranjit Singh and Bart Zwegers, ‘Absent Spaces’, in Media Fields Journal, No. 5: Memory, Space, and Media (2012).

Ranjit Singh and Ravi Kiran Atluri, ‘Democracy and Policy Games: The New Information Panchayats‘, in Journal of Creative Communications, Vol. 2, no. 3 (2007), pp. 329-344. DOI: 10.1177/097325860700200304

Mohit Gupta and Ranjit Singh, ‘Experience Management Framework for Managing Innovation in Post-Harvest Resource Management‘, in Proceedings of the 2006 IEEE International Conference on Management of Innovation and Technology (Singapore: IEEE, 2006), pp. 375-379.

Education

Doctoral

PhD in Science and Technology Studies (STS).
Department of Science and Technology Studies, Cornell University
Completed in August 2020

Graduate

Research Masters in Cultures of Arts, Science, and Technology (CAST).
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Maastricht University
Completed in July 2011

Undergraduate

BTech in Information and Communication Technology (ICT).
Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of ICT, Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India
Completed in May 2007

Grants

Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant, National Science Foundation, Co-PI (Jun 2017 – May 2018)
The Practice of Registering Indian Citizens Using Biometric Information.

Research Grant, Azim Premji University, Bengaluru, Co-PI (Jun 2017 – Dec 2020)
Life of a Tuple: Updating the National Register of Citizens in Assam.

Small Grants Award, Institute for the Social Sciences, Cornell University, Co-PI (Sep 2017 – Aug 2019)
Restoring Credit: How people Understand and Interact with Credit Scoring Systems.

Awards and Scholarships

CSCW 2021 Awards & Recognitions   Best Paper Award    Recognition for Contribution to Diversity & Inclusion ]
Ranjit Singh and Steven J. Jackson, ‘Seeing like an Infrastructure: Low-resolution Citizens and the Aadhaar Identification Project‘, in Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, Vol. 5, CSCW2, Article 315 (October 2021). DOI: 10.1145/3476056

The Sheila Jasanoff Prize for Academic Excellence in Science Technology Studies for the best graduate student paper for ‘Back to the Future: Situating the ‘T’ in ‘STS’‘ (May 2015).

Honorable Mention in the competition for Gertrude Spencer Portfolio Award, given in recognition of excellence in the development of a portfolio of essays to both the instructor and the student in the course ‘Users and their Stories’ (Spring 2014).

Huygens Scholarship Programme (Sep 2009 – Aug 2011)
Awarded by Netherlands Organization for International Cooperation in Higher Education (NUFFIC) to complete the CAST Research Masters at Maastricht University.

National Talent Search Examination (Jul 2000 – Jun 2002)
Organized by the by the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT), India.

Selected Invited Talks/Guest Lectures/Podcasts

2022

Ranjit Singh, ‘Ranjit Singh on Leveraging Big Data and AI-based Interventions for the Majority World‘, in the Between the Binary: Tech and the Global South Podcast hosted by Elina Noor (Audio Recording: The Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, 9 August 2022).

Ranjit Singh, ‘Ranjit Singh: Seeing through the Database‘, in the Utility + Function Podcast hosted by Matthew Putman (Audio Recording, 5 August 2022).

Ranjit Singh, ‘AI and My Welfare‘, in the fourth workshop of the No Minors Futures Initiative (Virtual Event: JAAKLAC Initiative, 7 June 2022).

Ranjit Singh, ‘#3.07 Ordinary Ethics of AI and Storytelling‘, in the Technology, Together Podcast hosted by Swati Ganeshan (Audio Recording: International Institute of Information Technology, Bengaluru, 30 May 2022).

Emnet Tafesse and Ranjit Singh, ‘A Social Science Approach to AI [Ep. 267]‘, in the Tech Policy Leaders Podcast hosted by Joseph Miller (Audio Recording: Washington Center for Technology Policy Inclusion, 23 May 2022).

Ranjit Singh, ‘Unpacking Data Colonialism‘, Guest Lecture at a course on Critical Debates in Digital Society (Virtual Event, Maastricht: Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Maastricht University, 10 March 2022).

Ranjit Singh, ‘Seeing Like an Infrastructure: Low-resolution Citizens and the Aadhaar Identification Project‘ at Information Systems Seminar Series (Virtual Event, Oslo: Department of Informatics, University of Oslo, 1 March 2022).

2021

Ranjit Singh, ‘Ranjit Singh on India’s Biometric Identification System, Representation and Governance‘ in The Good Robot Podcast hosted by Eleanor Drage, and Kerry Mackereth (Audio Recording: University of Cambridge Centre for Gender Studies, 9 November 2021).

Rumman Chowdhury, Luke Stark, Ranjit Singh, and Michael Zimmer, ‘Applied Algorithmic Ethics‘ in Ethics of Big Data Symposium (Virtual Event, Milwaukee: Department of Computer Science, Marquette University, 4 November 2021).

Ranjit Singh, ‘Mundane Stories of Data-Driven Life: Aadhaar, Citizenship, and Limits of Data Infrastructures‘ at 2021 Foundations of Digital Humanities Invited Speaker Series (Virtual Event, Jodhpur: Indian Institute of Technology, 24 August 2021).

Laura Forlano and Ranjit Singh, ‘Episode 4: Data & Infrastructure‘ in Season Three: Becoming Data of Public Books 101 Podcast hosted by Natalie Kerby (Audio Recording: Public Books, 7 June 2021).

Nina Gray, Ranjit Singh, Eileen Gonzales, and Ari Daniel, ‘Improving DEI in STEM‘ in Communicating Your Science session on the critical role of diverse and inclusive voices in STEM (Virtual Event, New York: Advanced Science Research Center at The Graduate Center of the City University of New York, 30 April 2021).

Imogen Parker, Ranjit Singh, Amy Fairchild, and Amanda Lenhart, ‘Vaccine Passports with Ada Lovelace Institute‘ at Databite No. 142 (Virtual Event, New York: Data & Society, 18 March 2021).

Lord James O’Shaughnessy, Carmela Troncoso, Ranjit Singh, and Andrew Strait, ‘The socio-technical challenges of designing and building a vaccine passport system‘ at the fourth public evidence event on vaccine passports and COVID status apps (Virtual Event, London: Ada Lovelace Institute, 25 February 2021).

Up until 2018

Ranjit Singh, ‘Computers are the new Babus!‘ at 2018-2019 Colloquium, Brown Bag, Research Presentation Series (Troy: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 7 November 2018).

Ranjit Singh, ‘Seeing Like an Infrastructure’, at the Media Manipulation Reading Group (New York: Data & Society, 13 November 2017).

Ranjit Singh, ‘Making up Aadhaar‘, Guest Lecture for a course taught by Harmony Siganporia on Imagining India: From Local to Global (Ahmedabad: MICA: The School of Ideas, 13 August 2016).

Ranjit Singh, ‘The Stuff of Computing: Digital Materiality‘, Guest Lecture for a course taught by Malte Ziewitz on Computing Cultures (Ithaca: Cornell University, 14 April 2016).

Ranjit Singh, ‘Where are the Missing Masses?‘, ‘The Triad of Users, Use and Technology‘, ‘Four Approaches in STS‘ and ‘A ‘partial’ history of STS‘, a set of four Guest Lectures for a course taught by Bidisha Chaudhuri and Janaki Srinivasan on Technology and Society (Bengaluru: The International Institute of Information Technology, August – October 2015).

Ranjit Singh, ‘Aadhaar & its Stories‘, Guest Lecture for a course taught by Malte Ziewitz on Computing Cultures (Ithaca: Cornell University, 9 April 2015).

Ranjit Singh, ‘Technology and Medical Care or How I learned to stop worrying and love technology!‘, Guest Lecture for a course taught by Christine Leuenberger on Sociology of Medicine (Ithaca: Cornell University, 3 November 2014 and 7 April 2014).

[Keynote Speaker] Ranjit Singh, ‘Back to the Future: Situating the ‘T’ in ‘STS’‘, at the Workshop on Social Construction of Technology Coming of Age: New Challenges and Opportunities Ahead (Trondheim: Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 3-5 June 2014).  

Selected Research Presentations

2022

Ranjit Singh, ‘The Curious Case of Tweeting an Aadhaar Number: Trust in the Security Practices of Public Data Infrastructures’, in Session 7: Trust in a Digital Age at the 21st Science and Democracy Network (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Kennedy School, 27-30 July 2022).

Rajesh Veeraraghavan, Rajendran Narayanan, Silvia Masiero, and Ranjit Singh, ‘Patching Development: Information Politics and Social Change in India‘ in Book Forum Series (Virtual Event, New York: Data & Society, 3 March 2022).

Rigoberto Lara Guzmán and Ranjit Singh, ‘Parables of AI: A method for gathering data/stories‘ at the Mozilla Festival (Virtual Event: Mozilla, 8 March 2022).

Michele E. Gilman, Joanna Redden, and Ranjit Singh, ‘The Automated State‘ at Databite No. 148, a part of the Conversations on the Datafied State curated by Jenna Burrell and Ranjit Singh (Virtual Event, New York: Data & Society, 11 May 2022).

Borhane Blili-Hamelin, Ranjit Singh, Gina Helfrich, Jillian Powers, and Vanja Skoric, ‘Taking algorithms to court: empowering communities to enact legal accountability‘, a workshop in the program track of Justice and Jurisdiction at RightsCon 2022 (Virtual Event: Access Now, 6 June 2022).

2021

Ranjit Singh, ‘The Hourglass Architecture of Vaccine Distribution: From Aadhaar to DIVOC’, in a panel on Data Governance: Social Protection and Biometrics Roundtable at the TILTing Perspectives Conference: Regulating in Times of Crisis (Virtual Event: Tilburg University, 19-21 May 2021).

Ranjit Singh, ‘The Curious Case of Public Disclosure of an Aadhaar number: Trust in Data Security Practices of Public Data Infrastructures’, in an academic workshop on Trust and Doubt in Public-Sector Data Infrastructures (Virtual Event: Data & Society, 25 March 2021).

Emanuel Moss, Ranjit Singh, Elizabeth Anne Watkins, and Jacob Metcalf, ‘The Society Machine: Methods, Ethics, Policy, and the Mutual Shaping of AI and Society’, in a panel on Safety with and from AI at the R. L. Rabb Science and Society Symposium on Embedding AI in Society  (Virtual Event: North Carolina State University, 18-19 February 2021).

2020

Ranjit Singh, ‘Thinking Through Orphaning in Aadhaar-enabled Distribution of Welfare Pensions in Rajasthan’, in a panel on Socio(technical) figurations of Death at the Northeast STS Graduate Student Conference (Troy: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 6-7 March 2020).

Ranjit Singh, ‘“The Living Dead”: Orphaning in Aadhaar-enabled Distribution of Welfare Pensions in Rajasthan’, in an academic workshop on CONTESTED DATA: What Happens When the Givens Aren’t Taken (New York City: Data & Society, 6 March 2020).

2019

Ranjit Singh, ‘Histories of Infrastructuring’, in a workshop on Fostering Historical Research in CSCW & HCI at the 22nd ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (Austin, Texas: Association for Computing Machinery, 10 November 2019).  

Ranjit Singh, ‘Memory practices of Platforms: Aadhaar as a Know-Your-Resident Modality’, in a workshop on FUTUREID3: Identification in the era of Automated Decision Making (Jesus and St Johns Colleges, Cambridge, UK: The Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research, 18-21 March 2019).

Ranjit Singh, ‘Rationalizing Constitutional Validity of Aadhaar: Stories at the intersection of Law, Technology, and Policy’, in a workshop on Technoscientific Constitutionalism: Exploring the Intersections of Science, Technology and Constitutional Order (Washington DC: DFG-NSF, 7-9 February 2019).

Khetrimayum Monish Singh and Ranjit Singh, ‘Making the ‘Other’ Count: Categorizing ‘Self’ using the NRC’, in the Internet Researchers’ Conference 2019 (IRC19) – #List (Hyderabad: Center for Internet & Society, 30 January – 1 February 2019).

Up Until 2018

Ranjit Singh, ‘Bureaucratic Trails of Citizenship: Updating the National Register of Citizens in Assam‘, in a Panel on Technologies of Mobility and Immobility: Ethnographies of Biometric Border Practices in a Changing World at the 117th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association (San Jose: American Anthropology Association, 15 November 2018).

Ranjit Singh, ‘Seams that Matter in Approaches to Study Processes of Marginalization’, in a Workshop on Solidarity Across Borders at the 21st ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (New York: Association for Computing Machinery, 4 November 2018).  

Ranjit Singh, ‘Matters of Scale: Unpacking Smallness in Large Volumes’, at the Science Studies Reading Group Meeting (Ithaca: Department of STS, Cornell University, 15 October 2018).

Ranjit Singh, ‘From Pipes to Platforms: Designing a Country-Scale Project‘, in a Panel on Coded citizenship. Biometrics, identity and de-socializing technologies in South Asia at the 25th European Conference on South Asian Studies (Paris: European Association for South Asian Studies, 24-27 July 2018).  

Ranjit Singh, ‘Give me a database, and I will raise a Nation State’, at the Science Studies Reading Group Meeting (Ithaca: Department of STS, Cornell University, 6 November 2017).

Ranjit Singh, ‘Seeing like an Infrastructure’, at the Science Studies Reading Group Meeting (Ithaca: Department of STS, Cornell University, 27 March 2017).

Ranjit Singh, ‘Authentication trails of Body as Evidence: What counts as a confirmation of what?‘, in a Panel on Techno-Utopias of Identification: Comparing and Situating the Fantasy in Aadhaar at 4th LASSnet International Conference – Thinking with Evidence: Seeking Certainty, Making Truth (New Delhi: Law and Social Science Research Network, 10-12 December 2016).  

Ranjit Singh, ‘Travelling Numbers: Tracing the Transformations of Aadhaar‘, in a Panel on Infrastructures, subjects, politics at 4S/EASST Conference – Science and technology by other means: Exploring collectives, spaces and futures (Barcelona: Society for Social Studies of Science/European Association for the Study of Science and Technology, 31 August – 3 September 2016).  

Ranjit Singh, ‘When Data Becomes Scary: A Journey into and then out of the Field‘, at the Science Studies Reading Group Meeting (Ithaca: Department of Science and Technology Studies, Cornell University, 7 March 2016).

Ranjit Singh, ‘Making up Aadhaar: Stories at the Intersection of Law, STS, and Public Values‘, in a Panel on Free Speech, Privacy, and Consent at The Act of Media: Workshop on Law, Media and Technology (New Delhi: The Sarai Programme, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, 8 January 2016).

Ranjit Singh, ‘Back to the Future: Situating the ‘T’ in ‘STS’‘, at the Science Studies Reading Group Meeting (Ithaca: Department of Science and Technology Studies, Cornell University, 22 September 2014).  

Ranjit Singh, ‘Testing for the Post-normal age: Investigating Scientific Risk Assessment in Bt Brinjal Controversy‘, at the Science Studies Reading Group Meeting (Ithaca: Department of Science and Technology Studies, Cornell University, 15 April 2013).  

Samir Passi and Ranjit Singh, ‘Deconstructing the Time-Travelling Identity‘, at the 5th International interdisciplinary conference on Philosophy of Computer Games (Athens: Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, 6-9 April 2011).  

Academic Appointments

Clinical Research Fellow
(Aug. 2019 – May 2020)

DIGITAL DUE PROCESS CLINIC, CORNELL UNIVERSITY

Involved in setting up and designing the curriculum of an NSF-funded clinical program to study and support data subjects in their struggles to secure fair representation in automated scoring systems. This clinic, inspired by the model of legal clinics, is designed to represent the rights of data subjects and engages with the limitations of legal remedies for experiences of opacity, bias, and marginality in everyday encounters with data infrastructures

Supervisor: Malte Ziewitz

Co-Instructor
(Spring 2019)

INFORMATION ETHICS, LAW, AND POLICY, CORNELL UNIVERSITY

This course investigates the ethical, legal, and social foundations of contemporary information technology. Students are expected to analyze and engage with contemporary challenges ranging from privacy in big data, mobile computing and national security environments, to the nature of innovation, property, and collaboration in an increasingly networked world.

In collaboration with: Steven Jackson

Instructor
(Fall 2013)

USERS AND THEIR STORIES, CORNELL UNIVERSITY

Designed the syllabus and taught a first-year writing seminar on social studies of technology that focused on the practice of creating and using technological artifacts. Students were expected to critically examine how designers develop products and how the users negotiate with their ‘intended’ use during appropriation through a series of writing assignments. One of my students was awarded an honorable mention in the competition for Gertrude Spencer Portfolio Award, given in recognition of excellence in the development of a portfolio of essays to both the instructor and the student.

Researcher
(Sep. 2011 – June 2012)

DEPARTMENT OF SOCIETY STUDIES, FACULTY OF ARTS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES, MAASTRICHT UNIVERSITY

I worked on the EU-project on Knowledge Brokerage for Environmentally Sustainable Sanitation in Europe (BESSE). It was a collaborative enterprise between research institutions in the Netherlands, Bulgaria and Italy. I studied the organizational culture of Water Board of Limburg (WBL) to follow how sustainability concerns were addressed in their everyday work practices.

Supervisor: Wiebe Bijker

Research Engineer
(June 2007 – July 2008)

DHIRUBHAI AMBANI INSTITUTE OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (DA-IICT)

I continued my work on Vaacha, a healthcare information visualization system of patients who came to the health camps organized by Bhasha, an NGO working on the study, documentation, and conservation of marginal languages in the tribal belt of Gujarat. The project focused on creating ways to look at statistical indicators for quality of life through maps and other representational methodologies.

Supervisor: Binita Desai

Industry Appointments

Associate Consultant
(Nov. 2008 – July 2009)

INNOVATION AND DESIGN INSIGHTS DIVISION, MINDSCAPE, TECHNOPAK

Qualitative ethnographic consumer research in the domain for product, service and business development. My work involved end-to-end participation in consultancy projects starting from the initial proposal creation, stakeholder interviews, user-research to analysis and development of design insights and recommendations for clients. I conducted end-user research on diabetic patients, online/offline equity investors, oil and energy sector professionals, and technology entrepreneurs.

Mentors: Parameswaran Venkataraman and Samrat Nawle

Freelance Journalism
(Oct. 2007 – Aug. 2008)

DAILY NEWS AND ANALYSIS (DNA), AHMEDABAD

Extensive statistical research on trend stories for state elections in Gujarat, feature stories on the city of Ahmedabad, technology reporting, and design of page layouts.

Mentor: Shyam Parekh, Resident Editor, Daily News and Analysis (DNA), Ahmedabad

Research Assistant Positions

Malte Ziewitz
(Aug. 2017 – Aug. 2020)

DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY STUDIES, CORNELL UNIVERSITY

Contributed to the set up and design of a NSF-funded Due Process Clinic to help data subjects secure effective representation in algorithmic systems. I was also involved in conducting the research study on Restoring Credit to follow low-income individuals working on improving their credit score in the United States.

Steven Jackson
(May – Aug. 2019)

DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATION SCIENCE, CORNELL UNIVERSITY

Redesigned the syllabus of the undergraduate course on Information, Ethics, Law, and Policy to incorporate Problem-Based Learning in its curriculum.

Sabina Leonelli and Jane Clavert
(Aug. – Dec. 2010)

ESRC GENOMICS NETWORK, EXETER AND EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY

Traced the history of the development of Cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid (CaBIG) to explore the challenges of collaboration between diverse stakeholders in cancer research.

Wiebe Bijker
(Sep. 2009 – June 2012)

DEPARTMENT OF SOCIETY STUDIES, FACULTY OF ARTS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES, MAASTRICHT UNIVERSITY

Administrative support for publication of the edited volume on Vulnerability in Technological Cultures and the anniversary edition of The Social Construction of Technological Systems.

Shiv Visvanathan
(Jan. 2006 – June 2008)

DHIRUBHAI AMBANI INSTITUTE OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (DA-IICT)

Research on building a typology of innovation systems in India and administrative support on Prof. Visvanathan’s courses, newspaper articles, and research papers.

Teaching Assistant Positions

Information Ethics, Law & Policy

CORNELL UNIVERSITY

This course investigates the ethical, legal, and social foundations of contemporary information technology. Students are expected to analyze and engage with contemporary challenges ranging from privacy in big data, mobile computing and national security environments, to the nature of innovation, property, and collaboration in an increasingly networked world.

Instructor: Steven Jackson

(Spring 2017)

Computing Cultures

CORNELL UNIVERSITY

This course critically examines how computing technology and culture shape each other. Students are expected to identify how information technologies reproduce, reinforce, and rework historical trends, norms, and values. It examines the values embodied in the cultures of computing and considers alternative ways of imagining information technologies.

Instructor: Malte Ziewitz

(Spring 2015 and Spring 2016)

What is Science?

CORNELL UNIVERSITY

This introductory course in STS focuses on how are science and technology are shaped by social context. Students are expected to think critically about what counts as scientific knowledge and why, and how science and technology intervene in the wider world.

Instructors: Stephen HilgartnerRebecca Slayton, and Trevor Pinch

(Fall 2018, Fall 2017 and Fall 2014)

Sociology of Medicine

CORNELL UNIVERSITY

This course provides an introduction to the ways in which medical practice, profession, and technology are embedded in society and culture by exploring the rise of medical sociology as a discipline, the professionalization of medicine, and medicalization as a process.

Instructor: Christine Leuenberger

(Spring 2014)

Knowledge and Criticism

MAASTRICHT UNIVERSITY

This course focused on history of science from the middle ages to Renaissance and Enlightenment. Students examined some fundamental problems and choices that accompanied the rise of modern science during the Scientific Revolution.

Instructor: Geert Somsen

(Nov. – Dec. 2011)

Network Society

MAASTRICHT UNIVERSITY

This course focused on contemporary sociological interpretations of society with a primary focus on Manuel Castells’ concept of Network Society. It aimed at providing insight into the nature and background of ‘network society’, and offer basic introduction to history and sociology of technology.

Instructor: Anique Hommels

(Sep. – Oct. 2011)

Selected Professional Activities

Reviewing Activities (Ongoing since 2017)
Journals: The Information Society; Science, Technology & Human Values; Catalyst: feminism, theory, technoscience; Asiascape: Digital Asia; and Information Technology for Development
Conferences: Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI); Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (CSCW)); and International Conference on Information & Communication Technologies and Development (ICTD)

Co-organizer (along with Rigoberto Lara Guzmán), Storytelling workshop on ‘Parables of AI in/from the Global South’ (Virtual Event: Data & Society, 21-22 October 2021).

Co-organizer (along with Noopur Raval), Panel on ‘Mapping the Conceptual Vocabulary of AI in the Global South‘ at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) (Virtual Event, Toronto: 4S, 6-9 October 2021).

Co-organizer (along with Michelle Spektor), Panel on ‘Biometrics on the Move‘ at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) (Virtual Event, Toronto: 4S, 6-9 October 2021).

Co-organizer (along with Noopur Raval, Radhika Radhakrishnan, and Vidushi Marda), Implications Tutorial on ‘AI on the Ground Approach‘ at the 2021 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency (FAccT ’21) (Virtual Event, Canada: FAccT, 4 March 2021).

Discussant in an academic workshop on AGAINST PLATFORM DETERMINISM: How institutions, individuals, and infrastructures mediate platform power (Virtual Event: Data & Society, 14 January 2021).

Co-organizer (along with Michelle Spektor), Panel with two sessions (1) Unpacking the Foundations of the Current Biometric Moment: Infrastructuring Biometrics Past and Present and (2) Unpacking the Foundations of the Current Biometric Moment: Biometric Machinations of Belonging at the Annual Meeting of the EASST and 4S – Locating and Timing Matters: Significance and Agency of STS in Emerging Worlds (Virtual Event: EASST and 4S, 18-21 August 2020)

Co-organizer (along with Misria Shaikh Ali), Panel on ‘Locating South Asia in Social Studies of Science and Technology‘ at the Annual Meeting of the EASST and 4S – Locating and Timing Matters: Significance and Agency of STS in Emerging Worlds (Virtual Event: EASST and 4S, 18-21 August 2020)

Participant, Politics and Poetics of Storytelling: A Media(ted) Sequel Working Group (Ithaca: Media Studies Graduate Working Groups Grant, Cornell University, Fall 2019 and Spring 2020).

Co-organizer (along with Joan Donovan), Panel on ‘The Future will be Terrible‘ at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) – Innovations, Interruptions, Regenerations (New Orleans: Society for Social Studies of Science, 4-7 September 2019)

Special Recognition for Outstanding Review, Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (CSCW) 2019 Papers.

Participant, Poetics and Politics of Storytelling Reading Group Meetings (Ithaca: Institute for Comparative Modernities (ICM) Graduate Reading Group Grant, Cornell University, Fall 2018 and Spring 2019).

Participant, Technology, Law & Society Summer Institute, University of California, Irvine (22-24 June 2018).

Co-organizer (along with Michelle Spektor), Panel with two sessions (1) Beyond Identification: Biometrics and Everyday Life and (2) Beyond Identification: Biometrics and the State at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) – STS (In)Sensibilities (Boston: Society for Social Studies of Science, 30 August – 2 September 2017)  

Participant, The iDev – Information and Development – Reading Group (iDev) Meetings (Ithaca: Department of Information Science, Cornell University, Spring and Summer 2017).

Organizer, Workshop on ‘Making Stories: Dissertation as Parables at the Northeast STS Graduate Student Conference – Making Do: Muddling Through to Dissertation (Troy: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 11-13 March 2016).  

Co-Organizer (along with Samir Passi), The Infrastructure Studies Reading Group (ISRG) Meetings (Ithaca: Collaboration between Departments of Science and Technology Studies and Information Science, Cornell University, Fall 2014 and Spring 2015)

Co-organizer (along with Jessica Beth Polk), The Science Studies Reading Group (SSRG) Meetings (Ithaca: Department of Science and Technology Studies, Cornell University, Fall 2014 and Spring 2015).

Co-Organizer, The Northeast STS Graduate Student Conference (Ithaca: Cornell University, 7-9 March 2014).