Best-selling author and associate professor at UCLA Dr. Safiya Noble will give a virtual talk titled Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism at 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday, October 21, over Zoom. Noble’s talk will be a part of Open Access Week 2020 activities held by Milner Library. This talk will be recorded and will be available to members of the Illinois State University community through the end of the fall semester. If you are unable to attend the live event and would like to request access to the recorded event, please email ellink@IllinoisState.edu.
Noble is the author of a book on racist and sexist algorithmic bias in commercial search engines, entitled Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism (NYU Press), which has been widely-reviewed in journals and periodicals including the Los Angeles Review of Books, and featured in the New York Public Library 2018 Best Books for Adults (non-fiction). Dr. Noble’s book is now available as an e-book from Milner Library.
In her recent best-selling book Algorithms of Oppression, Noble challenges the idea that “Big Tech” offers an equal playing field for all forms of ideas, identities, and activities. Her work argues that the combination of private interests, along with the monopoly status of a relatively small number of internet companies, leads to a limited understanding of how racism is created, maintained, and disseminated in everyday digital engagements. Data discrimination is a real social problem. In this talk, Dr. Noble will discuss her book and the impact of marginalization and misrepresentation in commercial information platforms like Google search, as well as the implications for public information needs. 
Noble is an associate professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in the Department of Information Studies, where she serves as the co-director of the UCLA Center for Critical Internet Inquiry. She is regularly quoted for her expertise on issues of algorithmic discrimination and technology bias by national and international press including The Guardian, the BBC, CNN International, USA Today, Wired, Time, The New York Times, and a host of local news and podcasts, including Science Friday. Noble holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in library and information science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and a B.A. in sociology from Fresno State University.
Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism
Dr. Safiya Umja Noble
12:30 p.m., Wednesday, October 21
Join via Zoom
This talk will be recorded and will be available to members of the Illinois State University community after the event. If you are unable to attend the live event and would like to request access or would like an Outlook calendar invitation sent with Zoom information, please email ellink@IllinoisState.edu.
About Open Access Week
Noble’s keynote lecture is sponsored by Milner Library in celebration of Open Access Week 2020. For more information on Noble’s talk or Open Access Week, please contact Milner Library Director of Communications and Outreach Erin Link at ellink@IllinoisState.edu or by phone at (309) 438-3897.
