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Microsoft Funds Data Justice and Racial Equity Postdocs

Dr. Anne Washingson, the Director of the Digital Interests Lab, received a $375,000 gift from the Microsoft Corporation to fund two postdoctoral fellowships that will work in concert to increase racial equity and justice in data-driven computing. The Lab is a research collaborative within PRIISM that explores public accountability for emerging data technology and asks questions about the role of computing in society through empirical investigations, creative expression, and community engagement. The funding supports two postdoctoral fellows who will address the legacy of racism in data-driven systems.

Alicia Boyd

Alicia Boyd

Data Justice Postdoctoral Fellow

Dr. Alicia Boyd (she/her) is a research scientist guided by wisdom, patience, and thoughtfulness. Her background is interdisciplinarily rooted in medicine, allowing her to approach challenges from a humanistic and reflexive approach. In 2021, she received her Ph.D. in Computer Science from DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois. Her research involves finding viable solutions to data-centric processes using her innovative methodological framework, Quantitative Intersectional Data (QUINTA).

QUINTA investigates, critiques, and examines how to significantly improve the design, deployment, and operation of real-world artificial intelligent systems (AI)--contributing to a more just, inclusive, and legitimate vision for AI. In Fall 2022, Dr. Boyd will join the Digital Interests Lab as a Data Justice Postdoctoral Researcher. To learn more about Dr. Boyd and her work, visit her website.

Davi Liang

Davi Liang

Racial Equity Postdoctoral Fellow

Dr. Davi Liang is a passionate and eclectic researcher of all things law, policy, biology and gastronomy. They graduated Centre College with majors in Biology and Political Science, and went on to acquire a J.D. from Washington and Lee School of Law. In between classes on business associations and intellectual property, they worked on studying the technology and mechanisms and all that is great and terrible with the way regulation and law handled the digital era and might manage with the future. Davi notes that while discussing tech is always fun, they are just as willing to swap dumpling recipes or whiskey suggestions. 

A warm welcome to Alicia and Davi from the PRIISM community! We're looking forward to learning more from both of you!