I am a Technologist, Activist, and Writer based in Berlin, Germany and Charlottesville, Virginia. My background is in computational mathematics and research engineering. I also study far-right extremism and write often about the topic.
I am passionate about good technological citizenship and believe strongly in building an equitable internet that fosters collaboration, community, and autonomy. In this space you will find posts about math and technology, writings on politics, and whatever else I find reflects my view of the world. Thank you for stopping by.
-Emily

— latest reads —

— latest posts —

Zuckerberg's Basilisk: The coercive threat of the singularity

Futurists' visions of digital immortality and the Metaverse may not be as utopian as they seem. Do big tech’s current models betray a coercive future of data piety? I extend a well-known thought experiment to explore the darker possibilities of digital life after death. ...

Book Report: The Metaverse by Matthew Ball

In 2022, we saw a flurry of “Web3” trends; among them, the Metaverse. Yet for all the talk, the Metaverse is still poorly defined, and understanding technologists' vision means we have to understand what problems they are trying to solve. There are good and bad bits in this futuristic vision, but the book provides only surface-level detail, and misses some easy targets. ...

Infoshare 2022
Why Charlottesville? Geography, history, racism and local politics all collided in 2017
The Charlottesville rally 5 years later: 'It's what you're still trying to forget'
Weekly Recap: 14 August 2022
Did we win?
Weekly Recap: 07 August 2022
Privacy and Data Mesh, Part 1
Copenhagen 2021

— social —

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— works seen in —

I am not employed by these outlets nor does this reflect their endorsement of me or my views.

— currently reading —

Support your local bookseller!

— projects —

Advancing Data Justice

I am an advisory board member of the Advancing Data Justice project, a collaboration between the Alan Turing Institute, the Global Partnership on AI (GPAI), and individuals and communities across the globe.

Youth Equity and Sexuality Lab

I advise the Youth Equity and Sexuality Lab at Suffolk University, a research lab focused on promoting positive adolescent and young adult sexuality development; preventing sexual violence; and fighting fascism, cis-hetero-patriarchy, and white supremacy.

HowHateSleeps

A study of the daily lives of violent far-right actors using court records to peer inside their living spaces.

whentheycamedown

A people’s history of the removal of statues honoring racists, slave owners, and colonizers, largely during the Uprising in the Summer of 2020 following the murder of George Floyd.

I am an advisory board member of The Prosecution Project, a data-driven project studying the patterns of prosecution of extremism, terrorism, and political violence.

The opinions shared on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of any organization listed above.

— key technologies —

CI/CD

Can build advanced automated workflows for multiple contexts.

Consulting

Public Speaking

python

Comfortable with many architectures and frameworks.

Data Quality Testing

PostgreSQL

Can optimize and operate for complex workloads.

Apache Airflow

Can build complex dags and optimize workflows, familiar with metadata model.

Azure

I can set up most services with IaC and understand the basic concepts to a practical degree.

AZ-900 Certificate 2021

neo4j

Familiar with basic operations, data models, and Cypher syntax.
denotes recent progress. For a more complete overview, see my CV.

— languages —

English

American, Mother Tongue

Deutsch

Can engage in daily conversation.

B2 Zertifikat 2022 (Goethe Institut)

Español

Lapsed

denotes recent progress. For a more complete overview, see my CV.