The Good Robot: Why Technology Needs Feminism Book Launch and Panel Discussion

Join us for our next Generative AI Learning Community event - co-sponsored by Barnard CSC, CEP, IMATS, and BLAIS:

What is good technology? Is it even possible? And how can feminism help us work towards it? Join Dr. Kerry McInerney and Dr. Eleanor Drage (Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, University of Cambridge), as they provide a snapshot of key challenges, questions and provocations in the field of feminism and technology, from Prometheus, protests and policing, to collective efforts to map out pleasurable and life-sustaining interactions with technology. The Good Robot: Why Technology Needs Feminism is a collection of short essays by leading technologists, philosophers, artists, and activists that grapples with the priceless, though frequently commodified question: "what is good technology?" Drs. McInerney and Drage will be joined by co-author Frances Negrón-Muntaner (Columbia University) and the discussion will be moderated by Savannah Thais (Data Science Institute, Columbia University).

Run of Show

• First 25 attendees receive a free copy of the book & refreshments will be served
• Book overview and Introduction: 20-25 minutes 
• Moderator discussion with Panelists: 15-20 minutes 
• Q&A with Audience: 10 minutes 

Speaker Biographies

Eleanor Drage is a Senior Research Fellow at The Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, University of Cambridge. Dr. Drage teaches AI professionals about AI ethics on a Masters course at Cambridge. She is the co-editor of The Good Robot: Feminist Voices on the Future of Technology, and Feminist AI: Critical Perspectives on Algorithms, Data and Intelligent Machines. She specialises in using feminist ideas to make AI better and safer for everyone. She is also currently building the world's first free and open access tool that helps companies meet the EU AI act's obligations. Drage co-hosts The Good Robot Podcast, where she asks key thinkers 'what is good technology?'. She is also also an expert on women writers of speculative and science fiction from 1666 to the present - An Experience of the Impossible: The Planetary Humanism of European Women’s Science Fiction.

Kerry McInerney is a Senior Research Fellow at The Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, University of Cambridge. Dr. McInerney co-leads the Global Politics of AI project on how AI is impacting international relations. She is also a Research Fellow at the AI Now Institute (a leading AI policy thinktank in New York) and a Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Studies, UCL for 2023-2024. She is also co-editor of The Good Robot: Feminist Voices on the Future of Technology and Feminist AI: Critical Perspectives on Algorithms, Data, and Intelligent Machines. Her work explores the intersections between race, gender, political violence, and artificial intelligence. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in Signs, Big Data and Society, New Media and Society, Philosophy and Technology, Public Understanding of Science, Feminist Review, Ethics and Information Technology, Gender, Place and Culture, and the National Political Science Review. Dr McInerney is also the co-author of the forthcoming book Reprogram: Why Big Tech is Broken and How Feminism Can Fix It (2026, Princeton University Press).

Frances Negrón-Muntaner (Panelist) is a Julian Clarence Levi Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University. She is an award-winning filmmaker, writer, and scholar. She is the recipient of Ford, Truman, Scripps Howard, Rockefeller, and Pew fellowships as well as a Social Science Research Council and Andy Warhol Foundation grants. She is the author of Boricua Pop: Puerto Ricans and the Latinization of American Culture (winner, 2004 CHOICE Award), and the editor of several books, including Puerto Rican Jam: Rethinking Nationalism and Colonialism; None of the Above: Puerto Ricans in the Global Era, and Sovereign Acts. Among Negrón-Muntaner's films are AIDS in the Barrio, Brincando el charco: Portrait of a Puerto Rican, and War for Guam. She is currently completing various films, including on Valor y Cambio, her award-winning just economy public art installation of the same name, and writing an intellectual biography on Arthur Schomburg.

Savannah Thais (Moderator) is an Associate Research Scientist at the Data Science Institute, Columbia University. Dr. Thais is interested in how designing and performing measurements impacts systems and societies. With a background in high energy particle physics, her recent work has focused on geometric deep learning, methods to incorporate physics-based inductive biases into machine learning (ML) models, regulation of emerging technology, social determinants of health, and community education. She is the founder and Research Director of Community Insight and Impact, a non-profit organization focused on data-driven community needs assessments for vulnerable populations and effective resource allocation. She also currently serves on the Executive Board of Women in Machine Learning and the Executive Committee of the APS Group on Data Science, and is a Founding Editor of the Springer AI Ethics journal.

This event is planned to take place in person only (The James Room, Barnard Hall 4th Floor).

We look forward to seeing you there!

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