The Speaker is Safiya Umoja Noble, Associate Professor, Department of Information Studies and African American Studies, University of California, Los Angeles

In her book, Algorithms of Oppression, Safiya Umoja Noble challenges the idea that search engines like Google offer an equal playing field for all forms of ideas, identities and activities. Data discrimination is a real social problem; Noble argues that the combination of private interests in promoting certain sites, along with monopoly status of a relatively small number of internet search engines, leads to biased set of search algorithms that privilege whiteness and discriminate against people of color, specifically women of color.

The lecture is co-organized by the Information Ecosystems Series (a Sawyer Seminar supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation), Co-Sponsors include the African Studies Program, The African American Program at the Senator John Heinz History Center, and the Pittsburgh Branch of the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society (AAHGS).