About

Brief bio:

Jenny L. Davis is the Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Endowed Chair and Professor of Sociology at Vanderbilt University, Honorary Professor of Sociology at The Australian National University, and 2024-2026 Non-Resident Fellow at the Center for Democracy and Technology.

Extended bio:

I work at the intersection of social psychology and technology studies, focusing on the ways social forces embed within and are affected by technological systems. My first book, How Artifacts Afford: The Power and Politics of Everyday Things (MIT Press 2020), provides an operational framework specifying how technological design reflects and shapes individuals and societies. My focus now is primarily on AI and the algorithms that sit underneath, applying a sociological lens to the ways data-driven infrastructures infuse our social worlds. For more on AI in society, check out my papers on Affordances for Machine Learning and Algorithmic Reparation, the latter of which underpins a forthcoming book (co-authored with Apryl Williams) titled “The Injustice of Fairness: Algorithmic Reparation and the Case for Redress” (UC Press, 2026).

I hold active roles in the Fairness Accountability and Transparency (FAccT) and AI Ethics and Society (AIES) communities. I’m also Past Chair of the Communication Information Technologies and Media Sociology section of the American Sociological Association (CITAMS) and former Deputy Director of The Australian National University’s Humanising Machine Intelligence Program (HMI).