(Ongoing Aug. 2023)
(Feb. 2022 – Jul. 2023)
(Sep. 2020 – Jan. 2022)
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. I also help guide research ethics at D&S and sustain equity in collaborative research practices both internally and with external partners.
My work broadly examines the everyday experiences of people subject to data-driven practices. I am particularly interested in following the ordinary ethics of exercising human agency in navigating everyday struggles of dealing with data-driven systems.
[Journal Article] Meg Young, Upol Ehsan, Ranjit Singh, Emnet Tafesse, Michele Gilman, Christina Harrington, and Jacob Metcalf, 'Participation versus scale: Tensions in the practical demands on participatory AI,' in First Monday, Vol. 29, no. 4 (April 2024). DOI: 10.5210/fm.v29i4.13642.
[Journal Article] Ranjit Singh, 'Intermediaries as infrastructure: Interrogating the phatic labor of state-building,' in Journal of Sociology (March 2024). DOI: 10.1177/14407833241234675.
[Journal Article] Jacob Metcalf and Ranjit Singh, 'Scaling Up Mischief: Red-Teaming AI and Distributing Governance,' in Harvard Data Science Review (2024). DOI: 10.1162/99608f92.ff6335af.
[Book Chapter] Ranjit Singh, ‘Good Technology is Slow (to Scale)', in Eleanor Drage and Kerry McInerney (eds.), The Good Robot: Why Technology Needs Feminism (London: Bloomsbury Academic Press, January 2024).
[Book Chapter] Steven J. Jackson, Jen Liu, Ranjit Singh, and Samir Passi, ‘Maintaining Data Infrastructures’, in Tommaso Venturini, Amelia Acker, Jean-Christophe Plantin, Antonia Walford (eds.), The SAGE Handbook of Data and Society: An Interdisciplinary Reader in Critical Data Studies (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publishing, forthcoming)
[Book Chapter] Ranjit Singh, ‘The Backend Work of Data Subjects: Ordinary Challenges of Living with Data in India and the US', in Lisa Parks, Julia Velkova, and Sander de Ridder (eds.), Media Backends: The Politics of Infrastructure, Clouds, and Artificial Intelligence (Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 2023). pp. 229-244.
[Policy Brief] Sorelle Friedler, Ranjit Singh, Borhane Blili-Hamelin, Jacob Metcalf, and Brian J. Chen, 'AI Red-Teaming Is Not a One-Stop Solution to AI Harms: Recommendations for Using Red-Teaming for AI Accountability', (New York: Data & Society Research Institute, October 2023), 10 pages. URL: https://datasociety.net/library/ai-red-teaming-is-not-a-one-stop-solution-to-ai-harms-recommendations-for-using-red-teaming-for-ai-accountability/
[Research Report] Emnet Tafesse with Meg Young, Ranjit Singh, and Jacob Metcalf, 'Blooming in Muddy Waters: DEI at AI Ethics Conferences', (New York: Data & Society Research Institute, October 2023), 39 pages. DOI: ssrn.4570694. URL: https://datasociety.net/library/blooming-in-muddy-waters-dei-at-ai-ethics-conferences/
[Journal Article] Ranjit Singh, ‘The curious case of tweeting an Aadhaar number: trust/mistrust in security practices of public data infrastructures’, in Journal of Cultural Economy (August 2023). DOI: 10.1080/17530350.2023.2229360.
[Conference Paper] 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.
[Commentary] 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.
[Conference Paper] 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.
[Edited Volume] Ranjit Singh, Rigoberto Lara Guzmán, and Patrick Davison, (eds.) 'Parables of AI in/from the Majority World: An Anthology' (New York: Data & Society Research Institute, December 2022), 191 pages. DOI: ssrn.4258527. URL: https://datasociety.net/library/parables-of-ai-in-from-the-majority-world-an-anthology/
[Primer] 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 Institute, September 2022), 44 pages. DOI: ssrn.4199467. URL: https://datasociety.net/library/a-primer-on-ai-in-from-the-majority-world/
[Journal Article] 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.
[Conference Paper] 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.
[Research Report] 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 Institute, 2021). URL: https://datasociety.net/library/assembling-accountability-algorithmic-impact-assessment-for-the-public-interest/
[Conference Paper] 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.
[Conference Paper] 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.
[Book Chapter] 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.
[Journal Article] 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.
[Journal Article] 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.
[Book Chapter] 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.
[Short Stories] 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.
[Conference Paper] 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
[Journal Article] Ranjit Singh and Bart Zwegers, 'Absent Spaces', in Media Fields Journal, No. 5: Memory, Space, and Media (2012).
[Journal Article] 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.
[Conference Paper] 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.
PhD in Science and Technology Studies (STS)
Department of Science & Technology Studies, Cornell University
Ranjit Singh, Seeing like an Infrastructure: Mapping Uneven State-Citizen Relations in Aadhaar-Enabled Digital India (Ann Arbor, Michigan: ProQuest Information and Learning, 2020). DOI: 10.7298/sadf-ye74.
Research Masters in Cultures of Arts, Science, and Technology (CAST).
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Maastricht University
Ranjit Singh, Locating Publics: Co-Production of the Bt Brinjal Controversy and Publics in India (Maastricht: Cultures of Arts, Science, and Technology (CAST), Maastricht University, 2011).
BTech in Information and Communication Technology (ICT).
Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of ICT, Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India
Research Fellowship
Siegel Family Endowment
Current member of the second cohort of Partner Research Fellows
Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant, Co-PI
National Science Foundation
The Practice of Registering Indian Citizens Using Biometric Information
Small Grants Award, Co-PI
Institute for the Social Sciences, Cornell University
Restoring Credit: How people Understand and Interact with Credit Scoring Systems
Huygens Scholarship Programme
Awarded by the Netherlands Organization for International Cooperation in Higher Education (NUFFIC) to complete the CAST Research Masters at Maastricht University.
National Talent Search Examination
Organized by the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT), India.
Featured in Business Insider's article on AI 100: The top people in artificial intelligence for 2023 under the category of Policy, Ethics and Research.
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 for Gertrude Spencer Portfolio Award, 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).
Visiting Lecturer, Department of Information Science, Cornell University
Taught a 4000-level undergraduate course on AI in/from the Majority World. The course explored existing efforts to reframe the global south as home to the majority of the human population and investigated the diverse ethics, politics, and experiences of living with data and AI in this majority world.
Clinical Research Fellow, 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.
Co-Instructor, Department of Information Science, Cornell University
Co-taught a 1000-level undergraduate course on Information, Ethics, Law, and Policy with Steven Jackson. The course investigated the ethical, legal, and policy foundations of contemporary information technology in the United States.
Instructor, Department of Science & Technology Studies, Cornell University
Designed the syllabus and taught a 1000-level first-year writing seminar on Users and their Stories. This course on social studies of technology focused on the triad of users, use, and technology.
Researcher, 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.
Research Engineer, Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of ICT, Gandhinagar, Gujarat
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.
Associate Consultant, Innovation and Design Insights Division, Technopak, Bengaluru
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 worked with diabetic patients, online/offline equity investors, oil and energy sector professionals, and technology entrepreneurs.
Freelance Journalism, Daily News and Analysis (DNA), Ahmedabad, Gujarat
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.
Reviewing activities
Journals: Science, Technology & Human Values; Big Data & Society; Catalyst: feminism, theory, technoscience; Science & Technology Studies; Asiascape; The Information Society; Information Technology for Development; Journal of Sociology; ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI); New Media & Society; Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW); and Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space.
Conferences
Co-Curator (along with Emnet Tafesse, Eryn Loeb, and Seth Young), Blog Series on Towards a Mindful Digital Welfare State (D&S research blog, Points)
Co-Curator (along with Jacob Metcalf, Emanuel Moss, and Eryn Loeb), Blog Series on The Social Life of Algorithmic Harms (D&S research blog, Points)
Mentor, Mozilla Responsible AI Challenge for the Kwanele Chat Bot team (2nd prize).
Mentor, Society for the Social Studies of Science Student Section (6S) Sketch Group.
Co-organizer (along with Jenna Burrell, Patrick Davison, and CJ Landow Brody), Academic workshop on ‘Keywords on the Datafied State’ (Virtual Event: Data & Society, 30-31 March 2023).
Panelist, Wilkinson, Daricia, Kate Crawford, Hanna Wallach, Deborah Raji, Bogdana Rakova, Ranjit Singh, Angelika Strohmayer, and Ethan Zuckerman, 'Accountability in Algorithmic Systems: From Principles to Practice' at the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA ’23) (Virtual Event, Hamburg: ACM, 25 April 2023). DOI: 10.1145/3544549.3583747.
Co-Presenter (along with Jenna Burrell), 'Sorting out the datafied state', a lightning talk in the program track of Data and the state: the digitalization of government services and administration at RightsCon 2023 (Virtual Event: Access Now, 6 June 2023).
Co-organizer (along with Michelle Spektor), Panel on ‘Biometrics and their Infrastructural Worlds' at the Annual Meeting
of the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) (Honolulu: 4S, 8-11 November 2023).