Ben Zefeng Zhang

I am a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Michigan School of Information (UMSI), co-advised by Dr. Oliver Haimson and Dr. Michaelanne Thomas. Broadly, I am interested in studying the interplay between labor, identity, mobility, and infrastructure in transnational contexts informed by the fields of HCI (Human-computer interaction), Science and Technology Studies (STS), and ICTD (Information Communication Technologies & Development).

Currently, I am conducting multi-sited ethnographic research for my dissertation with communities both in China and transnationally. It explores the sociotechnical, cultural, and economic dimensions of data production and data marketplaces in the context of large-scale data infrastructures and ways to improve technology design and policy for digitally-mediated labor communities.

My work has appeared at venues including ACM CSCW CHI, AAAI ICWSM, Social Media + Society, 4S, and AoIR. I have received fellowships from the Rackham Graduate School, the International Institute, the Lieberthal-Rogel Center for Chinese Studies at the University of Michigan, and the Weizenbaum Institute.

Before graduate school, I worked for a few years as a journalist and photographer. I enjoy cycling, swimming, running, yoga, and scuba diving. Please feel free to contact me directly.

Research areas:

Human-Computer Interaction and Social Computing
Science, Technology, and Society (STS)
Information Communication Technologies & Development (ICTD)
Labor, Mobility, and Infrastructure
AI production and data marketplace
Platform and data governance