Linda Huber is a PhD student at the University of Michigan School of Information, where she is part of the Tech Culture Matters research collective. She is co-advised by Silvia Lindtner and Casey Pierce.
Linda’s (she/her) research looks at the impacts of digital technologies on workers and organizations. She uses ethnographic research methods to explore the ways that organizations use digital technology to pursue greater power and profit, and the ways that workers find ways to survive and thrive in spite of – and through – digital technologies. She draws from feminist STS (science & technology studies) to theorize the interaction between power and technology.
Recent projects include: using Callon’s sociology of translation to theorize “platform power” across different kinds of platform companies; research with teletherapists working for sites like Talkspace looking at the platformization of feminized, professional carework; investigating the origin and evolution of the group “Women Who Go” to understand the role of coding language communities both as a tool for worker power and the enactment of corporate visions of “justice”.
Before starting her Ph.D., Linda worked as a qualitative UX research consultant for major tech and telecomms companies at Ipsos. She received her M.A. from Georgetown University’s Communication Culture & Technology program in 2017, and her B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College in New York in 2013.
Although she currently lives in Ann Arbor, Linda can often be found in Queens, NY, where her partner was born and raised (probably here or here). She attended high school in Hyde Park, Chicago, and suggests you visit the seminary co-op and Robie house if you get the chance.
You can also find me on Twitter and Linkedin.
