Post-Doctoral Fellow, AI-Enabled Scams

Data & Society Research Institute • New York, NY

9h • Hybrid

About The Position

Data & Society is assembling its eighth class of fellows to join us for 10 months, starting September 1, 2021. Our fellows program helps ensure that new connections and perspectives deepen and expand our community’s understanding of the challenges and opportunities society faces in a data-centric world. Fellows are researchers concerned with the implications of data-centric technology’s role in reconfiguring society. We are engaged, individually and together, in interrogating and articulating those implications and developing frames that can help society address emergent tensions. For the 2021-2022 program, Data & Society is seeking two Faculty Fellows whose research projects specifically focus on issues of race and technology. Continuing Data & Society’s history of work on fairness, equity, and civil rights, these faculty fellows will bring a justice-oriented perspective and intersectional approach to their interrogations of race and data. Broadly, their research projects will advance our mission and complement our work by exploring questions of race within existing research initiatives, cross-cutting themes, or stretching Data & Society’s research on race and technology in new directions. Data & Society prioritizes ambitious empirical and creative research projects that address complex socio-technical questions. We are looking for Faculty Fellows who have strong analytic, methodological, and theoretical foundations who are passionate about working alongside and with empirical researchers. Faculty Fellows may be looking to advance technical work, design policy interventions, bring historical insights into current conversations, or do new fieldwork. Potential Faculty Fellows are invited to imagine a specific project or set of activities that they will execute to help society’s understanding of a world increasingly made of and by data. Successful fellowship projects inform, convene, intervene, or provoke – with an eye to broader impact. We are open to a wide range of potential outputs, from scholarly articles to op-eds, events to code. We are also particularly interested in creating connections and exchange between our in-house research and Faculty Fellows’ projects. Furthermore, we love it when our fellows experiment with new ideas or stretch our work and network in unexpected directions. This is not a fellowship for those who want to spend a year head-down on an independent project. Rather, this is a program for people who are looking for ways to create impact both within and beyond their field as well as collaborate with researchers and practitioners. Successful candidates will see the value of their work within an interdisciplinary community and recognize the opportunities for growth from working in a dynamic environment. Faculty Fellow candidates should enjoy working on collaborative teams, mentoring junior researchers, and engaging broad audiences with research. Fellows commit to being an active participant with Data & Society for at least two days each week, although many Faculty Fellows benefit from deeper engagement. Each fellow, over the course of their fellowship, will pursue a project or set of activities of their own design. Fellows are also asked to engage with Data & Society – both at the organizational level and with the broader community. This engagement can take a number of different forms, from organizing seminars with visitors, to developing workshops, to working on in-house publications, and much, much more. We ask that all fellows either participate in or lead a monthly reading group, as well as produce a scholarly, artistic, or performance-based intervention for Data & Society, which can take the form of a report, primer, video series, or event with an accompanying blog post. Beyond that, the choice of where and how to participate is part of the fellowship design process between the fellow and Data & Society staff. Beyond the in-house cohort, Data & Society fellows are also connected to past fellows, our affiliates, and a broad field of actors both in New York City and beyond engage with Data & Society for workshops, seminars, social gatherings, and talks.

Requirements

• Faculty of any rank and discipline
• At least two years beyond receipt of their Ph.D. by the start of the fellowship
• Track record of engaging in research at the intersection of technology and race
• Committed to working in highly interdisciplinary environments
• Appreciation for different methodological approaches and ways of knowing
• Strong analytic, methodological, and theoretical foundations
• Passionate about working alongside and with empirical researchers
• Ability to see the value of their work within an interdisciplinary community and recognize the opportunities for growth from working in a dynamic environment
• Enjoy working on collaborative teams
• Enjoy mentoring junior researchers
• Enjoy engaging broad audiences with research
• Commitment to being an active participant with Data & Society for at least two days each week
• Ability to secure own visa and work permit if applying from outside the United States and accepted for residency in New York City

Nice To Haves

• Research projects specifically focus on issues of race and technology
• Justice-oriented perspective and intersectional approach to interrogations of race and data
• Research projects explore questions of race within existing research initiatives (Sociotechnical Security, AI On the Ground, Social Instabilities in Labor Futures, and Health and Data)
• Research projects explore questions of race within cross-cutting themes (vulnerabilities in socio-technical systems; systems of rights, equity, and governance in a networked world; and intersections of humans and intelligent systems)
• Research projects stretch Data & Society’s research on race and technology in new directions with novel topics and questions
• Advance technical work
• Design policy interventions
• Bring historical insights into current conversations
• Do new fieldwork
• Ambitious empirical and creative research projects that address complex socio-technical questions
• Experiment with new ideas or stretch our work and network in unexpected directions
• Research that is public-facing and focused on making an impact in a broad sense, not solely intended to speak to academic audiences
• Projects that lend themselves to spending a year collaborating with others and working on public-facing outputs
• Meaningful rethinking and revision of previous project proposals if reapplying

Responsibilities

• Conduct original research
• Publish findings in both scholarly and public-facing venues
• Engage with broader constituencies across numerous disciplines and perspectives
• Be active members of the Data & Society community – participating in seminars, research exchange, and events
• Support and mentor peers in research development
• Help translate scholarly knowledge for a wide range of stakeholders
• Organize seminars with visitors
• Develop workshops
• Work on in-house publications
• Participate in or lead a monthly reading group
• Produce a scholarly, artistic, or performance-based intervention for Data & Society (e.g., report, primer, video series, or event with an accompanying blog post)

Benefits

• Stipend of $25,000 for a 10-month commitment
• Additional, approved project costs up to $5,000
• Prorated stipend for fellowship periods shorter than ten months
• Access to email addresses and other virtual communication tools
• Programmatic and organizational support to advance their work
• Support in applying for both federal and philanthropic grants
• Assistance with crafting appropriate fellowship arrangements for fellows currently holding grants

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Entry Level
• Education Level: Ph.D. or professional degree