Mary L. Gray | |
---|---|
Gray at Microsoft Research in December 2015. | |
Nationality | American |
Occupation(s) | Anthropologist, Author |
Employer(s) | Harvard University's Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, Microsoft Research, Indiana University |
Known for | Research on labor, identity, and human rights in the digital economy |
Awards | MacArthur Genius Grant (2020) |
Academic background | |
Alma mater | University of California, Davis (B.A.), San Francisco State University (M.A.), University of California, San Diego (Ph.D.) |
Mary L. Gray is an American anthropologist and author. She is a Fellow at Harvard University's Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, as well as a Senior Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research. Along with her research, Gray teaches at Indiana University, maintaining an appointment as an Associate Professor of the Media School, with affiliations in American Studies, Anthropology, and Gender Studies. In 2020, she was awarded a MacArthur Genius Grant in recognition of her work "investigating the ways in which labor, identity, and human rights are transformed by the digital economy."
Education
In 1992, Gray completed a B.A. in anthropology and Native American studies at University of California, Davis. Her senior project explored the role of contemporary Alaskan Native single mothers in subsistence economies. Her advisors were David Risling and William G. Davis. In 1999, Gray earned a M.A. in anthropology from San Francisco State University. Her thesis was on queer youth narratives, the topic of her first book. Gray's advisors were John Paul De Cecco and Gilbert Herdt. She completed a Ph.D. in communication at University of California, San Diego in 2004. Gray's doctoral advisors were Susan Leigh Star and Olga Vásquez. Her dissertation was titled Coming of Age in a Digital Era: Youth Queering Technologies in Small Town, USA.
Career
Gray's early works explore the experiences of LGBTQ youth, with a particular focus on the lives of those in rural areas. Her book Out in the Country: Youth, Media, and Queer Visibility in Rural America examined how queer young people use digital tools to connect with and create community, challenging the primacy of urban areas as the focus of LGBTQ experience. Gray's most recent book, Ghost Work: How to Stop Silicon Valley from Building a New Global Underclass, takes a deep dive into the depths of the "ghosts" or, human labor force, that allow some of the internet's largest websites to run smoothly. The book takes a look at big companies, like Google and Amazon, that use these "ghost workers" to do things like censor their sites while trying to pass it off as AI.
Awards
Selected works
- Gray, Mary L. (1999). In Your Face: Stories from the Lives of Queer Youth. Haworth Press. ISBN 978-1-56023-887-4.
- Gray, Mary L. (2009). Out in the Country: Youth, Media, and Queer Visibility in Rural America. NYU Press. ISBN 978-0-8147-3220-5.
- Gray, Mary L.; Johnson, Colin R.; Gilley, Brian J., eds. (2016). Queering the Countryside: New Frontiers in Rural Queer Studies. NYU Press. ISBN 978-1-4798-3077-0.
- Gray, Mary L.; Suri, Siddharth (2019). Ghost Work: How to Stop Silicon Valley from Building a New Global Underclass. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 978-1-328-56628-7. See also Ghost Work.
References
- "Mary L. Gray at Microsoft Research". Microsoft Research. Retrieved 2019-10-08.
- "Mary L. Gray - MacArthur Foundation". www.macfound.org. Retrieved 2020-10-09.
- "Curriculum Vitae". Indiana University. Retrieved 2020-01-18.
- "Out in the Country". NYU Press. Retrieved 2020-10-09.
- "Ghost Work". Ghost Work. 2018-12-04. Retrieved 2019-10-21.
- "Class of 2020". 2020-10-06.
- Reviews of In Your Face:
- Leslie, Rodger (June 1999). "Review". The Booklist. 95 (19). Booklist Publications: 1805. ISSN 0006-7385.
- "Review". Reference and Research Book News. 15 (4). Ringgold Inc. November 2000. ISSN 0887-3763.
- Anonymous (April 2001). "Review". SIECUS Report. 29 (4). Sex Information and Education Council of the U.S.: 12–14. ISSN 0091-3995.
- Reviews of Out in the Country:
- Kazyak, Emily (2010). "Review". Journal of Research in Rural Education. 25 (6).
- Rosario, Vernon (May 2010). "Review". The Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide. 17 (3): 39. ISSN 1532-1118.
- White, C. Todd (August 2010). "Review". American Anthropologist. 112 (3): 482–483. doi:10.1111/j.1548-1433.2010.01265_6.x.
- Stapel, Christopher J. (December 2010). "Review". Rural Sociology. 75 (4): 637–639. doi:10.1111/j.1549-0831.2010.00039_4.x.
- Brekhus, Wayne H. (January 2011). "Review". Contemporary Sociology: A Journal of Reviews. 40 (1): 39–41. doi:10.1177/0094306110391764q. ISSN 0094-3061. S2CID 143710851.
- Gershon, Ilana (October 2011). "Review". Comparative Studies in Society and History. 53 (4): 997–1007. doi:10.1017/S001041751100048X. ISSN 0010-4175. JSTOR 41241872. S2CID 146864834.
- Greteman, Adam J. (January 2012). "Review". Journal of LGBT Youth. 9 (1): 63–66. doi:10.1080/19361653.2011.627502. ISSN 1936-1653. S2CID 143761200.
- Reviews of Queering the Countryside:
- "Review". The American Historical Review. 121 (3): 1055.4–1055. June 2016. doi:10.1093/ahr/121.3.1055c. ISSN 0002-8762.
- "Review". ProtoView. 3 (12). Ringgold Inc. March 2016. ISSN 2372-3424.
- Roberta, Jean (September 2016). "Review". The Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide. 23 (5): 43. ISSN 1532-1118.
- Hickey, A. (October 2016). "Review". Choice. 54 (2): 299. ISSN 0009-4978.
- "Review". Journal of American History. 103 (3): 730. December 2016. doi:10.1093/jahist/jaw350. ISSN 0021-8723.
- Stewart, Amanda A. (June 2017). "Review". Rural Sociology. 82 (2): 368–371. doi:10.1111/ruso.12172.
- Kumer, Peter (2017). "Review". Teorija in Praksa (in Slovenian). 54 (2). University of Ljubljana Faculty of Social Sciences: 416–418. ISSN 0040-3598.
- Vainker, Ellie (Winter 2017). "Review". Great Plains Quarterly. 37 (1): 57–62. doi:10.1353/gpq.2017.0003. ISSN 2333-5092. S2CID 164597478.
- Collins, Brooke G. (December 2017). "Review". Sex Roles. 77 (11–12): 829–830. doi:10.1007/s11199-017-0789-0. ISSN 0360-0025. S2CID 149442204.
- Hawkins, Blake (January 2018). "Review". Journal of Homosexuality. 65 (2): 259–261. doi:10.1080/00918369.2017.1333812. ISSN 0091-8369. S2CID 34038851.
- Sanchez, Laura; Sweetman, Miranda K. (January 2019). "Review". Teaching Sociology. 47 (1): 74–77. doi:10.1177/0092055X18814435. ISSN 0092-055X. S2CID 149783734.
- Reviews of Ghost Work:
External links
Categories:- Living people
- American women anthropologists
- Artificial intelligence ethicists
- 21st-century American anthropologists
- 21st-century American non-fiction writers
- 21st-century American women writers
- Microsoft employees
- Indiana University Bloomington faculty
- American women non-fiction writers
- Berkman Fellows
- University of California, Davis alumni
- University of California, San Diego alumni
- San Francisco State University alumni
- MacArthur Fellows