The History and Ethics of Big Data
A Conversation with IFK Postdoctoral Researcher Iris Clever
About the Event
We live amidst a “Big Data” revolution. Computer scientists have developed machine-learning algorithms to analyze enormous amounts of data in a wide variety of contexts, from social media to crime statistics. This “artificial intelligence” is built to replicate human thinking and automate decision-making. Recent studies in the history and sociology of science, however, question the novelty and neutrality of our Big Data Age. In this Conversation with IFK Postdoctoral Researcher Iris Clever, we will explore the history and ethics of big data, including how evolving technologies may revive historical prejudices as well as create new opportunities for the future.
Who's Speaking
Iris Clever
Institute on the Formation of Knowledge
Open Enrollment Instructor
Iris Clever is a historian of science, medicine, and technology whose research explores why and how science measures what it measures. Much of her work is concerned with the quantification of bodies, the human experience of measurement practices, and the role bodies and technologies play in defining the relationship between objectivity and subjectivity in science. Her current book project, The Afterlives of Skulls, reveals how and why biometrics emerged in the 19th and 20th century as an innovative tool to shed new light on human variation while it continued to perpetuate old racial prejudices in algorithms, instruments, and human data. Iris teaches widely in history of science and medicine, cultural history, Science and Technology Studies, race, and gender. She holds a PhD in History from UCLA and a BA and MA in History from Utrecht University.
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