How can we use the tools of big data, networks and an understanding of our digital infrastructure to shed light on power relationships and inequities? In her work as a digital humanities scholar, Dr. Deb Verhoeven is enlisting machine learning to redress the persistent domination of power elites. Her unique approaches include using criminal network analysis to identify “gender offenders” and expose “Daversity”. She’s also pioneering a new type of intervention she calls “digital infrapuncture”. We talk about big data, AI, networks, digital infrastructure, search and why Richard Davidson just might be the best name to have if you’re looking for funding.

“People think of big data as having something to with size, but size is relative. Big data stretches us to the limits of what we’re capable of…if you’re not having an existential crisis….it’s not big. Big data implicates us.”  – Deb Verhoeven

Dr. Deb Verhoeven is a Professor at the University of Alberta and holds the Canada150 Research Chair in Gender and Cultural Informatics. She’s also the Director of the Humanities Networked Infrastructure (HuNI) Project and was previously Associate Dean of Engagement and Innovation in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS), University of Technology Sydney (UTS).  Her research interest lies in extending the limits of conventional film studies; exploring the intersection between cinema studies and other disciplines such as history, information management, geo-spatial science, statistics, urban studies and economics.