Safiya Umoja Noble, Assistant Professor of Communication at the University of Southern California, gave a public talk on her new book, Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism, on Monday, May 14th at the Roosevelt House at Hunter College.

Algorithms of Oppression contests the idea that search engines are unbiased marketplaces of ideas. Rather, Noble argues that search engines reflect the underlying power structures of the societies in which they are built, and often weaken the voices of historically underrepresented groups. Following Prof. Noble’s talk, Meredith Broussard, Assistant Professor at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, New York University and author of Artificial Unintelligence: How Computers Misunderstand the World, responded. A book signing and reception followed.

This event was made possible by funding from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and the Democracy Fund.