Edward B. Kang
Assistant Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication
Media, Culture, and Communication
Edward B. Kang is Assistant Professor in the Department of Media, Culture, and Communication. He is currently writing a book (under contract, MIT Press) that parses the scientific, cultural, and technical formats through which artificial intelligence, voice, and listening are fastened together. He is also the co-director of a multi-year project supported by the National Endowment of Humanities (NEH) titled Machine Listening in the Age of Artificial Intelligence.
Kang’s work sits at the intersection of Science & Technology Studies (STS) and Sound Studies, with a specific focus on the sociotechnical dimensions of AI/ML systems and the communities, cultures, and practices through which they are enacted. His research on these topics has been published in Big Data & Society, Social Studies of Science, Science, Technology & Human-Values, and the Proceedings for the ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency, among others.
In addition to his work on AI/ML systems, Kang has published research on digital platforms such as Tinder, Spotify, and Thematic, as well as given talks on South Korean pop culture.
Kang holds a PhD in Communication with a graduate certificate in Science & Technology Studies from the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School, and a BA in East Asian Area Studies with a minor in Music Industry also from USC. At USC, he was a member of the Sloan-funded interdisciplinary research collective Knowing Machines, as well as served as Assistant Editor for the International Journal of Communication.
Selected Publications
Ground truth tracings (GTT): On the epistemic limits of machine learning. Big Data & Society 10(1). (2023).
Biometric imaginaries: Formatting voice, body, identity to data. Social Studies of Science 54(2). (2022).
On the praxes and politics of speech emotion recognition. FAccT'23. (2023).