Virginia Eubanks (born 1972) is an American political scientist, professor, and author whose work examines the intersection of technology and social justice. She is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at the University at Albany, SUNY, and has focused her research on how data-driven and automated systems affect economically disadvantaged communities. Eubanks is best known for her 2018 book Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor, which won multiple awards and brought public attention to the harms of using algorithms in public welfare systems.
Eubanks has also contributed to public discourse through fellowships and advocacy, including a fellowship at New America, and through co-founding grassroots organizations that address the social and political impacts of the information age. Her work blends academic scholarship with activism, emphasizing the need for state intervention and socially responsible policy making.
Education
Eubanks graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Literary Culture from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1994. She then pursued graduate studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, earning a Master of Science in Communication and Rhetoric in 1999 and a PhD in Science and Technology Studies in 2004. Her academic background combined literary analysis with technology studies, laying the groundwork for her later research on the social dimensions of computing and data.
Career and research
Eubanks joined the faculty at the University at Albany, SUNY, after completing her PhD in 2004. Her research spans community technology, poverty, women's citizenship, and social justice, with a focus on how technological systems can perpetuate or mitigate inequality. In 2016-17, she was a Fellow at New America, where she investigated digital privacy, economic inequality, and data-based discrimination.
Eubanks co-founded several initiatives aimed at empowering ordinary people to understand and challenge technological injustice. She was a founding member of the Our Data Bodies Project, which works to address data collection practices that affect marginalized communities. She also co-founded the Popular Technology Workshops, a space for community members to define and combat social, economic, and political injustices of the information age. In 2005, she helped found Our Knowledge, Our Power (OKOP), a welfare rights and economic justice group that was part of the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign (PPEHRC) until it disbanded in 2015. Her efforts have positioned her as a bridge between academic research and grassroots activism.
Eubanks has authored two solo books: Digital Dead End: Fighting for Social Justice in the Information Age (2011) and Automating Inequality (2018). She also co-edited Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around: Forty Years of Movement Building with Barbara Smith alongside Alethia Jones, a volume documenting the work of the prominent Black feminist and activist Barbara Smith. In 2020, Eubanks was featured in the documentary Coded Bias, directed by Shalini Kantayya, which explored the societal impacts of facial recognition and other algorithmic technologies.
Automating Inequality
Published in 2018, Automating Inequality examines how data mining, policy algorithms, and predictive risk models affect the poor and working class. Eubanks investigated cases where automated systems replaced human judgment in determining who receives help, finding that these systems made damaging decisions based on flawed data and embedded class, race, and gender biases. The New York Times called the book "riveting," noting its success in making technology and policy accessible.
Central to the book is Eubanks's concept of the "digital poorhouse," which describes technological systems that encode historical or cultural assumptions about poverty. She documented specific examples, including the automation of welfare eligibility in Indiana under former Governor Mitch Daniels in 2006, systems predicting child abuse and neglect, and algorithms that scored homeless individuals to allocate limited housing. Eubanks argued that these tools often replace human judgment with flawed data, leading to damaging decisions that penalize the poor. She advocated for state intervention and for electing officials who prioritize social responsibility.
Selected awards
The book Automating Inequality received critical acclaimcars and multiple honors. It won the 2019 Lillian Smith Book Award, given to works that demonstrate a commitment to social justice, and the 2018 McGannon Center Book Prize. It was also shortlisted for the 2018 Goddard Riverside Stephan Russo Book Prize for Social Justice. The New York Times described the book as "riveting," a notable accomplishment for a work on technology and policy.
Public engagement and recognition
Eubanks's influence extends beyond academia. She was featured in the 2020 documentary Coded Bias, directed by Shalini Kantayya, which examines the societal impacts of algorithms and bias in technology. Her earlier book, Digital Dead End: Fighting for Social Justice in the Information Age (2011), also addressed issues of inequality in technology, and she co-edited Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around: Forty Years of Movement Building with Barbara Smith with Alethia Jones. Her work has been cited in discussions of Artificial intelligence ethics and the social implications of Machine learning systems, particularly regarding algorithmic decision-making in public policy.
Her advocacy includes a call for greater public accountability. In Automating Inequality, she coins the term "digital poorhouse" to describe automated systems that embed historical and cultural assumptions about poverty. She argues that such systems can harm vulnerable populations by using flawed data and reinforcing class, race, and gender biases.
Impact of Automating Inequality
Automating Inequality is widely regarded as a seminal work in the field of technology and social justice. The New York Times called the book "riveting," noting its accessibility for a topic involving technology and policy. In the book, Eubanks investigated the impacts of data mining, policy algorithms, and predictive risk models on the poor and working class. She documented cases where automated systems replaced human judgment in determining who deserves help, often with damaging results. Examples include a welfare eligibility automation implemented by former Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels in 2006, predictive models for child abuse and neglect, and systems that score homeless individuals for limited housing. Eubanks argued that these technologies encode historical and cultural assumptions about poverty, leading to unjust outcomes.
To address these issues, she advocated for state intervention and for voting policy makers into office who value social responsibilityebb5b6c8d. Her work has influenced debates around Artificial intelligence ethics and data justice, inspiring further research and activism. The book was shortlisted for the 2018 Goddard Riverside Stephan Russo Book Prize for Social Justice and won the 2018 Lillian Smith Book Award, which recognizes writing that explores racial and social injustice.
Selected awards
Eubanks's scholarship has received recognition from several organizations. In 2018, Automating Inequality won the McGannon Center Book Prize, which honors works that advance understanding of social and ethical issues in communication. That same year, it was shortlisted for the Goddard Riverside Stephan Russo Book Prize for Social Justiceainer. In 2019, the book received the Lillian Smith Book Award. These accolades reflect her standing as a leading voice on how technology intersects with poverty and civil rights.
Eubanks's work continues to inform debates about surveillance, algorithmic accountability, and the ethics of Machine learning systems, particularly in public sector applications.