Anita Say Chan

Anita Say Chan, Professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, is a leading scholar at the intersection of science and technology studies, critical data analysis, and decolonial frameworks. She holds appointments in the College of Media and the School of Information Sciences (iSchool), directing the Community Data Clinic and co-leading the Just Infrastructures Initiative. Her research examines datafication, ethical technology design, and historical parallels between eugenics and Big Tech, as detailed in her acclaimed book Predatory Data: Eugenics in Big Tech.

• Education: PhD in History and Anthropology of Science and Technology Studies, MIT

Chan’s work spans globalization and innovation economies, feminist data studies, and digital humanities, with a focus on marginalized communities and data sovereignty. Her publications address query optimization, graph-based AI, and reinforcement learning, reflecting a technical and critical lens.

Recent awards include the Fiddler Innovation Faculty Fellow and support from the National Science Foundation. She also serves as a Fulbright Specialist, advancing feminist data collectives in Latin America.

Key Contributions:
• Founding the Community Data Clinic at NCSA
• Co-leadership in the Just Infrastructures Initiative
• Collaboration on the Feminist Data Manifest-NO project