Joy Rohde

Joy Rohde is an Associate Professor at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy and a faculty affiliate in the Department of History and the Science, Technology, and Society Program at the University of Michigan. Her research focuses on the intersection of science, technology, and state power, particularly examining the historical relationship between social sciences and U.S. national security interests since World War II.

• PhD, History and Sociology of Science, University of Pennsylvania
• MA, History and Sociology of Science, University of Pennsylvania
• BA, Anthropology, University of Chicago

Rohde’s work critically analyzes Cold War-era collaborations between social scientists and the U.S. military, with a focus on computational governance and the ethical implications of predictive policy systems. Her current book project, People of the Machine, traces the Cold War roots of modern computational governance and its impact on intellectual autonomy.

Recent publications explore topics such as algorithmic bias, the militarization of social research, and the historical entanglement of technology with political science. Rohde has received prestigious fellowships from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, and the Jefferson Scholars Foundation.

• Member, School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study (2020-21)
• Director, Science, Technology, and Society Program at the University of Michigan