Ruha Benjamin

Ruha Benjamin is the Alexander Stewart 1886 Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University and founding director of the Ida B. Wells Just Data Lab. She is an acclaimed author of four books, including the award-winning Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code (2019) and Viral Justice: How We Grow the World We Want (2022), which won the 2023 Stowe Prize. In 2024, she received a MacArthur Foundation 'Genius' Fellowship. Her work critically examines the intersections of race, technology, and social inequality.

• Education: BA in Sociology and Anthropology from Spelman College; MA and PhD in Sociology from UC Berkeley; postdoctoral fellowships at UCLA’s Institute for Society & Genetics and Harvard’s Science, Technology & Society Program

Dr. Benjamin’s research focuses on the social dimensions of science, medicine, and technology, analyzing how innovation can perpetuate or challenge inequity. She advocates for a 'micro-vision of change,' emphasizing everyday actions to dismantle oppressive systems and build just alternatives. Her concept of the 'New Jim Code' critiques discriminatory designs in technology that encode racial hierarchies under the guise of neutrality.

Her scholarly work has been published in Science, Technology, and Human Values, Policy & Society, Ethnicity & Health, and the Annals of the American Academy of Social and Political Science. Media outlets such as The Guardian, Nature, and NBC News have highlighted her contributions to debates on AI, data justice, and racial literacy.

• Scientific Awards: MacArthur Foundation Genius Fellowship (2024), Stowe Prize (2023), Marguerite Casey Foundation Freedom Scholar Award, ACLS Fellowship, NSF Fellowship, Princeton President’s Award for Distinguished Teaching

As director of the Ida B. Wells Just Data Lab, she collaborates with educators, technologists, and activists to reimagine liberatory futures. Her talks on 'uStopias' challenge utopian/dystopian narratives of technology, urging pragmatic engagement with its societal entanglements.