Virginia Eubanks
{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2022}}
{{Use American English|date=July 2023}}
{{Short description|American political scientist, author}}
{{Infobox academic|name=Virginia Eubanks|known_for=Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor|alma_mater=University of California, Santa Cruz (B.A.)
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (M.S., PhD)|workplaces=University at Albany, SUNY|image=Gesprek tweede kamer met Virginia Eubanks (33140421058).jpg|thesis_title=Popular technology: Citizenship and inequality in the information economy|thesis_url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/305151442|thesis_year=2004|website=https://virginia-eubanks.com/}}Virginia Eubanks (born 1972){{cite web |url=https://viaf.org/viaf/121061752/ |title=Eubanks, Virginia, 1972-.... |publisher=VIAF}} is an American political scientist, professor, and author studying technology and social justice. She is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at the University at Albany, SUNY. Previously Eubanks was a Fellow at New America researching digital privacy, economic inequality, and data-based discrimination.
Eubanks has written and co-edited multiple award-winning books, the most well-known being Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor.{{Cite book|last=Eubanks|first=Virginia|title=Automating Inequality|publisher=St. Martin's Press|year=2018|isbn=9781250074317|pages=272}} Her book uncovers the harms generated by computer algorithms to replace human decisions and how they negatively impact the economically disadvantaged.
Education
Eubanks graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Literary Culture in 1994 at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She attended Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute for her graduate studies, where she earned a Masters of Science in Communication and Rhetoric in 1999 and a PhD in Science and Technology Studies in 2004.{{Cite web|title=Virginia Eubanks {{!}} University at Albany|url=https://www.albany.edu/rockefeller/faculty/virginia-eubanks|access-date=2021-03-20|website=www.albany.edu}}
Career and research
Eubanks joined the faculty at the University of Albany, SUNY after completing her PhD in 2004.{{Cite web|title=Virginia Eubanks : Washington and Lee University|url=https://my.wlu.edu/mudd-center/programs-and-events/2019-2020-the-ethics-of-technology/virginia-eubanks|access-date=2021-03-20|website=my.wlu.edu}} Her research examines the intersection of community technology, poverty, women's citizenship, and social justice.
She was a founding member of the Our Data Bodies Project and a Fellow at New America in 2016–17.{{Cite web|date=July 9, 2020|title=Public Thinker: Virginia Eubanks on Digital Surveillance and People Power|url=https://www.publicbooks.org/public-thinker-virginia-eubanks-on-digital-surveillance-and-people-power/|access-date=2021-03-20|website=Public Books|language=en-US}} Eubanks also co-founded the Popular Technology Workshops, which served as a place for ordinary people to come together to define and combat the social, economic and political injustices of the information age. In 2005, she was a founding member of Our Knowledge, Our Power (OKOP), a welfare rights and economic justice group. OKOP was a member organization of the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign (PPEHRC) until it disbanded in 2015.
Eubanks has written two books: Digital Dead End: Fighting for Social Justice in the Information Age (2011){{Cite book|last=Eubanks|first=Virginia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZrofEAAAQBAJ|title=Digital Dead End: Fighting for Social Justice in the Information Age|date=2012|publisher=MIT Press|isbn=978-0-262-51813-0|language=en}} and Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor (2018). She also co-edited Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around: Forty Years of Movement Building with Barbara Smith alongside Alethia Jones.
She was featured in the 2020 documentary Coded Bias directed by Shalini Kantayya.{{Cite web|date=March 15, 2021|title=Documentary Review: Coded Bias|url=https://www.4sonline.org/documentary-review-coded-bias/|access-date=2021-03-23|website=Society for Social Studies of Science|language=en-US|archive-date=May 19, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210519141157/https://www.4sonline.org/documentary-review-coded-bias/|url-status=dead}}
= ''Automating Inequality'' =
{{main|Automating Inequality}}
In 2018, Eubanks published the book Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor. The New York Times called her book "riveting", which was "an accomplishment for a book on technology and policy".{{Cite news|last=Featherstone|first=Liza|date=May 4, 2018|title=How Big Data Is 'Automating Inequality'|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/04/books/review/automating-inequality-virginia-eubanks.html|access-date=2021-03-20|issn=0362-4331}}
In her work she investigated the impacts of data mining, policy algorithms, and predictive risk models and their impacts on the poor and working class, especially when automated systems will replace humans in deciding who is worthy of receiving help.{{Cite web|date=July 24, 2018|title=Why One Professor Says We Are 'Automating Inequality' – EdSurge News|url=https://www.edsurge.com/news/2018-07-24-why-one-professor-says-we-are-automating-inequality|access-date=2021-03-19|website=EdSurge|language=en}}{{Cite web|title=Digitizing the Carceral State|url=https://harvardlawreview.org/2019/04/digitizing-the-carceral-state/|access-date=2021-03-19|website=harvardlawreview.org|date=April 10, 2019 |language=en-US}} Eubanks found that AI-enabled public and private systems linked to health, benefits and policy were making damaging decisions based on flawed data and class, race, and gender biases.{{Cite web|last=Tett|first=Gillian|date=February 24, 2021|title=After Google drama, Big Tech must fight against AI bias|url=https://www.ft.com/content/ef0c61ab-240d-42b1-af3c-aca2e4896bd2|access-date=2021-03-19|website=www.ft.com|language=en-GB}}{{Cite web|last=Lenhart|first=Amanda|date=March 29, 2018|title=How Automation Can Punish the Poor|url=https://slate.com/human-interest/2018/03/automating-inequality-author-virginia-eubanks-on-how-algorithms-can-punish-the-poor.html|access-date=2021-03-19|website=Slate Magazine|language=en}} She coins the term "digital poorhouse": technological systems that embedded historical or cultural assumptions about what it means to be poor.{{Cite web|last=Peters|first=Adele|date=March 1, 2018|title=Algorithms Are Creating A "Digital Poorhouse" That Makes Inequality Worse|url=https://www.fastcompany.com/40534131/algorithms-are-creating-a-digital-poorhouse-that-makes-inequality-worse|access-date=2021-03-19|website=Fast Company|language=en-US}} She used examples of automating welfare eligibility (as implemented by former Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels in 2006), predicting child abuse and neglect, and scoring homeless people to categorize them for limited housing.{{Cite web|title=Automated Tech Perpetuates the Digital Poorhouse|url=https://www.sumologic.com/blog/automated-tech-perpetuates-digital-poorhouse/|access-date=2021-03-19|website=Sumo Logic|language=en-US}} To solve the issues of automated systems, Eubanks advocated for state intervention and voting policy makers into office who valued social responsibility.
== Selected awards ==
- Winner of the 2019 Lillian Smith Book Award{{Cite web|last=Dotson|first=Kaitlin|date=July 10, 2019|title=2019 Lillian Smith Book Award winners announced|url=https://news.uga.edu/lillian-smith-book-award-winners-2019/|access-date=2021-03-19|website=UGA Today|language=en-US}}
- Winner of the 2018 McGannon Center Book Prize{{Cite web|last=Strohmeyer|first=Shannon C.|title=McGannon Center Book Prize for 2018: Eubanks' "Automating Inequality"|url=https://www.fordham.edu/info/29820/news_for_the_mcgannon_center/11718/mcgannon_center_book_prize_for_2018_eubanks_automating_inequality|access-date=2021-03-19|website=www.fordham.edu|language=en|archive-date=May 19, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210519142700/https://www.fordham.edu/info/29820/news_for_the_mcgannon_center/11718/mcgannon_center_book_prize_for_2018_eubanks_automating_inequality|url-status=dead}}
- Shortlisted for the 2018 Goddard Riverside Stephan Russo Book Prize for Social Justice
References
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Category:University of California, Santa Cruz alumni
Category:Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute alumni