Sociologist of data analytics and emerging technologies

Taylor M. Cruz is a sociologist of science, technology, and medicine. She studies the societal dimensions of data analytics and artificial intelligence, with a strong focus on power, inequality, and social justice. She draws on qualitative and ethnographic methods to follow data analytics and emerging technologies across social contexts. Her scholarship is featured in Journal of Health and Social Behavior, Social Science & Medicine, Engaging STS, and Big Data & Society, and has received awards from the American Sociological Association and the Society for the Study of Social Problems. In collaboration with Sophie Wang, she co-created the critical STS and ethnographic zine AI for Whose Good? Lessons from Community Resistance to Automation at the Port of Los Angeles.

Taylor recently joined Northeastern University as Associate Professor in Sociology & Anthropology and Health Sciences. She previously held a tenured position at California State University, where she founded the Health, Tech, and Society Lab to study societal issues in science, technology, and medicine affecting marginalized communities. She received her PhD in Sociology from UC San Francisco, where she remains a network affiliate with the UCSF Emancipatory Sciences Lab.

Recent scholarship: “A Sociology of Artificial Intelligence: Inequalities, Power, and Data Justice”