This is a presentation I gave at the 2018 Annual Conference of the American Society for Cybernetics. I won the Heinz von Foerster Award for the innovative research.
I hope you enjoy.
Author: Stephen Paff
Response-ability Conference Talk
On May 21st, Astrid Countee and I presented at the 2021 Response-ability Conference. We discussed strategies for leveraging data science and anthropology in the tech sector to help address societal issues. The Response-ability’s overall goal was to explore how anthropologists and software specialists in the tech sector to understand and tackle social issues.
Here is an abstract for Astrid’s and my talk:
In the coming months, Response-ability plans to publish our presentation, so if you are interested in watching it, please stay tuned until then. When they make the videos accessible, they should post them here: https://response-ability.tech/2021-summit-videos/.
I appreciated the whole experience. Thank you to everyone who helped make the conference happen, and Astrid for doing this talk with me.
Announcement: Speaking at the Upcoming Response-ability Summit
On Friday May 20th at 10:00 am BST, Astrid Countee and I are presenting at the upcoming Response-ability Summit about strategies to integrate data science and ethnography in the tech world. The conference centers on how to develop socially responsible technology. I think it will be a great opportunity to discuss how to work as an anthropologist or other social scientist in the tech world.
You can find more details here:
| Conference Program: https://response-ability.tech/programme/ |
| Information about Other Speakers: https://response-ability.tech/speakers-2021/ |
| LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/response-ability-summit/ |
| Twitter: https://twitter.com/responsabletech) |
Anthropology by Data Science: The EPIC Project with Indicia Consulting as an Exploratory Case Study
This is my practicum report with Indicia Consulting. In lieu of a master’s thesis, the University of Memphis Department of Anthropology required that we master’s students conduct a practicum project. For this, we had to partner with an organization and complete a 300+ hour anthropological research project based on the organization’s needs and our skills and interests. My practicum project was Indicia’s EPIC Project with the California Energy Commission (see this link and this link for more details on the EPIC Project). In this report, I outline potential ways to integrate ethnographic/anthropological and data science research in professional settings.
In November 2019, the American Anthropological Association’s Committee for the Anthropology of Science, Technology, and Computing (CASTAC) awarded me the David Hakken Graduate Student Prize for innovative science and technology scholarship.
Full Report:
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Open in new tab The Anthropology Department also required that you publicly present your practicum research to the University of Memphis campus. This PowerPoint summarizes my practicum project. If you are not keen to read the 99 page full report, this is a much shorter alternative:
If you are interested in learning more about the project, please check out the following:
- Indicia Consulting’s Final Research Report with the California Energy Commission
- My Presentation at the 2019 Memphis Data Conference for Data Scientists Specifically
Computerized Knowledge Production: Machine Learning Models as Social Actors
The following is a presentation I gave at the Society for Applied Anthropology’s 2018 annual conference in Philadelphia, PA. In it, I describe how I think anthropologists should understand, analyze, and relate to machine learning and data science.
Memphis Data Conference: Anthropology by Data Science: The EPIC Project with Indicia Consulting as an Exploratory Case Study
Below is a talk I gave at the 2019 Memphis Data conference, organized by the University of Memphis to discuss data science research in the Memphian community. In this presentation, I summarize a project I did with Indicia Consulting that integrated data science and ethnography.
Check out these articles for a more detailed description of the projects: a short project summary, my master’s thesis about the project, and Indicia’s full report.
Final Report of EPIC Project with Indicia Consulting
I oversaw the statistical and data science research for the EPIC research project for Indicia Consulting, which the California Energy Commission (California’s name for their department of energy) commissioned. After several years of work, we published this report describing the project.
Here is a downloadable version as well:
For more context, on the California Energy Commission’s wider research goals in this project, feel free to check this out as well.
Working on the project was amazing, and I am proud to have been a part of it. Thank you Susan Mazur-Stommen and Haley Gilbert in particular for organizing everything.
Applied Anthropology Conference Presentation: Integrating Anthropology and Data Science
On July 8th, 2021, I presented virtually at the Congress of Anthropologists and Ethnologists of Russia in Tomsk, Siberia, organized by Association of Anthropologists and Ethnologists of Russia. My talk was titled “Integrating Anthropology and Data Science,” which I presented as part of its subcommittee for applied and business anthropology. I discussed the unique opportunities integrating data science could provide anthropologists and potential strategies for how to integrate the two disciplines.
Here was my original abstract for the conference:
Here is my full presentation:
I had a great time, and I hope you enjoy it as well.