Ji Su Yoo, a Harvard alumna and IQSS Fellow, has been named a 2020 recipient of the Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans.
Yoo's research interests concern exposing how technology and its use in critical decision-making processes may reflect or exacerbate existing political and social inequalities. She is a PhD student at the UC Berkeley School of Information, where she focuses on the intersection of technology and inequality, and social computing using mixed methods. Yoo is interested in identifying ways to use and build technologies to reduce barriers to information, and resource access among people of color, people with disabilities, and immigrants. Her long-term goal is to continue conducting research that will inform public interest issues.
As a Visiting Fellow with IQSS, Yoo has worked closely with faculty affiliate Latanya Sweeney, Professor of Government and Technology in Residence and director of the Data Privacy Lab, on data analysis to evaluate the impact of technology on society. In Sweeney's words, Yoo has "continuously leveraged her social science background and nurtured her passion to explore inequality and injustice through a technological lens... Ji Su has shown herself to be amazing. There is no doubt that she will succeed and excel, and it is nice to see her abilities acknowledged and rewarded with this honor."
The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans is a merit-based fellowship awarded annually to 30 immigrants and children of immigrants who are pursuing graduate school in the United States.
