Taylor Spears

Taylor Spears is a Lecturer in Financial Technology and Organisations at the University of Edinburgh Business School, affiliated with the Edinburgh Centre for Financial Innovations and the Culture, Accounting, and Society (CAS) research network. She joined the institution in 2018 after serving as Head of Risk Analytics at Schulenburg Capital Ltd.

Her educational background includes:

• PhD in Sociology of Finance, University of Edinburgh (2014)
• MSc in Public Policies for Science, Technology, and Innovation, University of Sussex (2009)
• BS in Economics (major) and Mathematics (minor), Arizona State University (2008)

Spears' research examines organizational dimensions of finance and technology, focusing on how emerging technologies transform financial markets and institutions. She investigates modeling cultures within banks and financial organizations, analyzing how these practices enable and constrain risk management capacity. Current projects explore synthetic data in financial markets, stack decentralization politics in DeFi, post-2008 risk management evolution, and model translation dynamics between academia and finance.

Her 2020-2025 publications reveal strong interdisciplinary trends bridging finance, sociology, and technology. Key themes include the sociology of financial modeling, machine learning's institutional impact, and socio-technical aspects of decentralized finance, consistently drawing from Social Studies of Finance traditions while addressing contemporary technological disruptions.

Spears serves as Principal Investigator for "Material models, synthetic markets" (ongoing) and previously led "Translating Machine Learning into Finance" (2020). She advises major conferences including Finance and Society 2025 and the 41st EGOS Conference, demonstrating active engagement in scholarly community building.

Within the Edinburgh Centre for Financial Innovations and CAS research network, she contributes to collaborative research initiatives and seminar coordination, fostering interdisciplinary dialogue on financial technology's societal implications.