Karla A. Erickson

Karla A. Erickson is a Professor and Department Chair of Sociology at Grinnell College, with affiliations to the American Studies program. Her research spans feminist ethnography, labor studies, and the socio-cultural impacts of AI, focusing on human-machine relations and automation.

• Ph.D. in American Studies with a minor in Feminist Studies, University of Minnesota (2004)
• M.A. in Liberal Studies, Hamline University (1998)
• B.A. in English and Women's Studies, Illinois Wesleyan University (1995)

Erickson's research explores the interplay between human value and technology, elder care rituals, and market-based community dynamics. She is currently advancing her project Messy Humans: A Sociology of Human/Machine Relations, integrating critical race theory with analyses of automation.

Her work has been featured in outlets such as Scientific American, Salon, and Wired, and she received the 2020-2021 Center for the Humanities Faculty Fellowship to support her course I/Robot and visual archive of machine life. Erickson actively mentors students through courses and research teams, addressing topics like precursors to AI adoption and its societal implications.