Dan Kotliar - visiting researcher at the Taube Center for Jewish Studies, Stanford University.

This talk will explore the the social drama behind the algorithmic construction of identity categories. Based on an ethnographic study of the Israeli data analytics industry, it will be shown that contemporary identity categories not only stem from algorithms or their data, but from people's practices, values, and even fears.

Dan Kotliar completed his PhD dissertation at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and is now a Visiting Researcher at the Taube Center for Jewish Studies, Stanford University. His latest article, on the algorithmic construction of identity, is forthcoming in New Media & Society. His current research deals with the cultural construction of AI ethics among Israeli high-tech companies in the Silicon Valley.