Ben Zefeng Zhang

I am a fifth-year Ph.D. candidate at the University of Michigan School of Information (UMSI), working with Dr. Oliver Haimson and Dr. Michaelanne Thomas. I study how data-driven and AI systems reconfigure identity, work, mobility, and power, along with their resulting sociotechnical implications. ​To achieve these insights, I employ a life-cycle-centered approach, leveraging ethnographic and qualitative research methods to examine the precarity, inequality, and invisible labor inherent in AI infrastructures — from development and implementation to governance. 

​

Drawing on my training in applied data science and sociocultural ethnography, my research focuses on three streams: (1) AI production and data infrastructures; (2) algorithmic mobility and identity transitions across social media; (3) labor, work and social justice in global computing. My empirical research has yielded several key conceptual contributions (e.g., precision labor in AI production, human-centered algorithmic mobility, and infrastructural migration) and design implications around algorithmic resistance and global platform governance.

My work has been published at top computing venues, including ACM CHI, ACM CSCW, ACM GROUP, AAAI ICWSM, and the CSCW Journal, as well as interdisciplinary venues such as Social Media & Society, 4S, and AoIR. My work is supported by awards and fellowships, including the International Institute, the Lieberthal-Rogel Center for Chinese Studies, Rackham Graduate School at the University of Michigan, and the Weizenbaum Institute in Germany. 

Before graduate school, I worked for a few years as a journalist, feature writer, and photographer at an international news outlet. I enjoy cycling, swimming, running, hiking, and yoga. Please feel free to contact me directly.