Short bio:
Lauren Klein is Professor of Data & Decision Sciences and English at Emory University, where she also directs the Digital Humanities Lab and the Atlanta Interdisciplinary AI Network. Her research brings together computational and critical methods to explore questions of gender, race, and justice, both in early America and today. Klein is the author (with Catherine D’Ignazio) of the award-winning Data Feminism (MIT Press, 2020), and the editor (with Matthew K. Gold) of Debates in the Digital Humanities (Univ. of Minnesota Press), among other books and papers. Her next book, Data by Design: From the History of Visualization to the Future We Need, is forthcoming from the MIT Press in Fall 2026.
Longer academic bio:
Lauren Klein is Professor of Data & Decision Sciences and English at Emory University, where she directs the Digital Humanities Lab and the Atlanta Interdisciplinary AI Network. Previously, she taught in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication at Georgia Tech. Klein’s research brings together computational and critical methods to explore questions of gender, race, and justice, both in early America and today. She is the author of An Archive of Taste: Race and Eating in the Early United States (University of Minnesota Press, 2020) and, with Catherine D’Ignazio, the award-winning Data Feminism (MIT Press, 2020). With Matthew K. Gold, she edits Debates in the Digital Humanities, a hybrid print-digital publication stream that explores debates in the field as they emerge. Her work has appeared in leading humanities journals including PMLA, American Literature, and American Quarterly; and at technical conferences including ACL, FAccT, and IEEE VIS. Her research has been supported by grants and fellowships from the ACLS, the NEH, and the Mellon Foundation. Her next major project, Data by Design: From the History of Visualization to the Future We Need, is forthcoming from the MIT Press in print and online in Fall 2026.
Also long but less formal bio:
Lauren Klein is Professor of Data & Decision Sciences and English at Emory University, where she directs the Digital Humanities Lab and the Atlanta Interdisciplinary AI Network. Before moving to Emory, she taught in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication at Georgia Tech.
Lauren works at the intersection of data science and machine learning (what people now call “AI”), data and AI ethics, and American literature and culture, with an emphasis on research questions about gender and race. She has designed platforms for exploring the contents of historical newspapers, modeled the invisible labor of women abolitionists, and recreated forgotten visualization schemes with fabric and addressable LEDs. She is the author of An Archive of Taste: Race and Eating in the Early United States (University of Minnesota Press, 2020) and, with Catherine D’Ignazio, Data Feminism (MIT Press, 2020), which was named one of the “must-read books for Spring 2020” by WIRED Magazine. With Matthew K. Gold, she edits Debates in the Digital Humanities, a hybrid print-digital publication stream that explores debates in the field as they emerge.
Lauren’s next major project, a book and interactive website called Data by Design: From the History of Visualization to the Future We Need, is forthcoming from the MIT Press in Fall 2026. The project-in-progress is viewable online at: dataxdesign.io.
Headshots
Photos by Melissa Denae
Links to download print resolution: Image 1, Image 2, Image 3
Social Media
Blue Sky: https://bsky.app/profile/laurenfklein.bsky.social
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lauren_f_klein
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@lauren_f_klein
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lklein/
GitHub: https://github.com/laurenfklein/ and https://github.com/EmoryDHLab/
Web: http://lklein.com/ and http://dhlab.quantitative.emory.edu/
