Mary L. Gray 人类学家和媒体学者

shiyi18

Mary L. Gray
Anthropologist and Media Scholar | Class of 2020
Investigating the ways in which labor, identity, and human rights are transformed by the digital economy.


Portrait of Mary L. Gray
Photos for download >
Download video file >
Title
Anthropologist and Media Scholar
Affiliation
Microsoft Research
Location
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Age
51 at time of award
Area of Focus
Media Studies, Cultural Anthropology
Website
marylgray.org
Microsoft Research: Mary Gray
Indiana University: Mary Gray
Social
Twitter
LinkedIn
Published October 6, 2020
ABOUT MARY'S WORK
Mary L. Gray is an anthropologist and media scholar investigating the ways in which labor, identity, and human rights are transformed by the digital economy. Gray undertakes ethnographic research to explore the intersection of personal lived experience with technology and digital culture, building detailed and nuanced portaits of the societal impacts of technology on the daily lives of nontraditional users and marginalized online communities.

Her book, Out in the Country: Youth, Media, and Queer Visibility in Rural America (2009), is a groundbreaking study of queer rural youths’ use of digital media to negotiate emerging identities and to find community. Gray uncovers new insights into how these processes play out specifically in rural contexts and presents a powerful corrective to assumptions that the only viable option for queer individuals to live with visibility is in urban centers. She demonstrates that the multilayered strategies used by queer youth to organize, support, and build community with one another traverse online and offline spaces; the young people she observes not only consume media texts but also create and share media inspired by their face-to-face interactions and activities. In her most recent book, Ghost Work: How to Stop Silicon Valley from Building a New Global Underclass (2019), co-authored with Siddharth Suri, Gray reveals the underlying human labor that seemingly automated systems require in order to function. She traces the historical antecedents of this gap between what machines can and cannot do—what she calls the “paradox of automation’s last mile”—from the piecework of the textile industry prior to the Industrial Revolution, to practices of outsourcing in the twentieth century, and, finally, to the invisible droves of individual workers undertaking tasks via on-demand crowdworking platforms. The work of this last category ranges from the mundane (tagging images of furniture to optimize search engine performance) to the treacherous and consequential (deciding if an image is pornographic). Gray and collaborators performed thousands of surveys and interviews with workers across the United States and India to gain a better understanding of their working conditions and motivations for doing this kind of work. She documents the ways in which workers are disadvantaged and exploited through minimal compensation, lack of support networks, and the impact of customer performance ratings on future job prospects. Recognizing that work of this nature affords some benefits, such as flexible scheduling and the ability to work remotely, Gray posits ten technical and policy recommendations for creating more cooperative, worker-centered platforms.

Through her timely examinations of the ethical and societal implications of technological advances, Gray sheds light on overlooked or intentionally hidden areas of the digital economy and on the potential to shape more inclusive digital futures.

BIOGRAPHY
Mary L. Gray received a double BA (1992) from the University of California at Davis, an MA (1999) from San Francisco State University, and a PhD (2004) from the University of California at San Diego. She joined the faculty of Indiana University in 2004; she is currently on research leave and holds a faculty position in the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering, with affiliate appointments in the Departments of Anthropology and Gender Studies. Since 2012, she has been affiliated with Microsoft Research, where she is a senior principal researcher. Additionally, Gray is a faculty associate at Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society. Gray’s additional publications include the co-edited volume Queering the Countryside: New Frontiers in Queer Rural Studies (2016) and In Your Face: Stories from the Lives of Queer Youth (1999), as well as numerous journal articles and book chapters.

IN MARY'S WORDS
"How we account for one another and the planet is reflected in the technologies we design, build, and abandon."
Technologies have become de facto public squares that connect and envelop us. They shape how we see (or fail to see) ourselves and one another. But there is nothing about the nature of technology itself that can define us or foreclose our actions. How we account for one another and the planet is reflected in the technologies we design, build, and abandon. We animate and deploy technologies to express our social, cultural, political, and economic realities. Technologies cannot replace our humanness. They can only amplify and stifle what and who comes to matter.



Mary L. Gray
人类学家和媒体学者 | 2020级
研究劳动、身份和人权被数字经济所改变的方式。


Mary L. Gray的肖像

标题
人类学家和媒体学者
工作单位
微软研究院
工作地点
马萨诸塞州剑桥市
年龄
获奖时为51岁
重点领域
媒体研究，文化人类学
网站
marylgray.org
微软研究。玛丽-格雷
印第安纳大学。玛丽-格雷
社会
推特
LinkedIn
发表于2020年10月6日
关于玛丽的工作
Mary L. Gray是一位人类学家和媒体学者，研究劳动、身份和人权被数字经济改变的方式。格雷进行人种学研究，探索个人生活经验与技术和数字文化的交集，建立技术对非传统用户和边缘化网络社区的日常生活的社会影响的详细和细微的描写。

她的书《Out in the country: 她的著作《Out in the Country: Youth, Media, and Queer Visibility in Rural America》（2009年），是对农村同性恋青年使用数字媒体来协商新的身份和寻找社区的一项开创性研究。格雷对这些过程是如何在农村环境中具体展开的有了新的见解，并对认为同性恋者在城市中心生活的唯一可行选择的假设提出了有力的纠正。她表明，同性恋青年用来组织、支持和相互建立社区的多层次策略穿越了在线和离线空间；她观察到的年轻人不仅消费媒体文本，而且还创造和分享由他们面对面的互动和活动激发的媒体。在她最近与西达斯-苏里（Siddharth Suri）合著的《幽灵工作：如何阻止硅谷建立新的全球底层社会》（2019）一书中，格雷揭示了看似自动化的系统为了运作而需要的潜在人类劳动。她追溯了机器能做和不能做之间的这种差距--她称之为 "自动化最后一英里的悖论"--的历史先例，从工业革命前纺织业的计件工作，到二十世纪的外包做法，最后到通过按需众包平台承担任务的无形的个人工人队伍。这最后一类的工作范围从平凡的（标记家具图像以优化搜索引擎性能）到险恶的、有影响的（决定一个图像是否是色情的）。格雷和合作者对美国和印度的工人进行了数千次调查和采访，以更好地了解他们的工作条件和从事这种工作的动机。她记录了工人通过最低报酬、缺乏支持网络以及客户业绩评级对未来工作前景的影响而处于弱势和被剥削的方式。认识到这种性质的工作提供了一些好处，如灵活的时间安排和远程工作的能力，Gray提出了十项技术和政策建议，以创造更多的合作、以工人为中心的平台。

通过她对技术进步的道德和社会影响的及时检查，格雷揭示了数字经济中被忽视或有意隐藏的领域，以及塑造更具包容性的数字未来的潜力。

个人简历
Mary L. Gray在加州大学戴维斯分校获得双学士学位（1992年），在旧金山州立大学获得硕士学位（1999年），并在加州大学圣地亚哥分校获得博士学位（2004年）。她于2004年加入印第安纳大学的教师队伍；目前她正处于研究休假期，在卢迪信息学、计算机和工程学院担任教职，并在人类学和性别研究系担任附属职务。自2012年以来，她一直隶属于微软研究院，是一名高级首席研究员。此外，格雷还是哈佛大学伯克曼-克莱因互联网与社会中心的副教授。格雷的其他出版物包括共同编辑的《同性恋的乡村》一书。Queering Countryside: New Frontiers in Queer Rural Studies (2016)和In Your Face。来自同性恋青年生活的故事》（1999），以及许多期刊文章和书籍章节。

用玛丽的话说
"我们如何对彼此和地球负责，反映在我们设计、建造和放弃的技术中。"
技术已经成为事实上的公共广场，连接并包围着我们。它们塑造了我们如何看待（或不看待）自己和彼此。但是，技术本身的性质并没有什么可以定义我们或限制我们的行动。我们如何对彼此和地球负责，反映在我们设计、建造和放弃的技术中。我们用技术来表达我们的社会、文化、政治和经济的现实。技术不能取代我们的人性。它们只能放大和扼杀重要的东西和人。