I’m an ethnographer studying how people criticize the high-tech industry.
I am currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Engineering & Society at University of Virginia.
I received my PhD from the Department of Sociology at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario in June 2021. My dissertation explores the how our ideas about what constitutes “good work” reinforces technosolutionism–you can read it here. My book based on this research is currently under contract with MIT Press’ Labor and Technology Series.
I research digital technologies, labor, culture, and critique. My work draws from several subfields:
- Science & Technology Studies: digital justice; tech and political action; cities; labor
- Political sociology: civic & political action; municipal government
- Digital sociology: race & the internet; digital ethnography
- Pragmatic sociology: critique & justification
This site lists some of my past and current projects, CV, and course syllabi. I have an article out in International Journal of Communication exploring how high-tech workers deal with feeling disillusioned with the tech industry; you can access it here. You can read my most recently published piece on encryption, counter-surveillance advocacy, and racism here.
karina ripley, phd 