Jess Reia

Jess Reia is an assistant professor of data science and a faculty co-lead at the Digital Technology for Democracy Lab at the University of Virginia (UVA). They are also a visiting scholar at Fudan University in Shanghai and a nonresident fellow at the Center for Democracy and Technology in Washington, D.C. Reia works primarily on topics of data justice, human rights, and technology policy transnationally, being interested in the untold stories in our datasets and how to meaningfully include communities in technological processes. A policymaker by training, they have collaborated with governments for over a decade and produced resources to support policymaking. Their research has been published in four languages and spans Brazil, Canada, and the United States. Reia is also a public scholar whose writing and interviews were featured in numerous outlets, including Estadão, Le Devoir, and BBC. Before joining UVA, they were appointed Mellon Postdoctoral Researcher at McGill University, studying the impact of smart-washing and datafication in nocturnal urban spaces and their communities. Reia held a two-year mandate as a member of MTL 24/24’s first Night Council in Montreal and worked at the Center for Technology and Society at FGV Rio Law in Rio de Janeiro.

Reia’s project, “Building Bridges and Re-imagining Responses to Fight Anti-Trans Polarization in the U.S.,” will investigate the role of digital technologies — especially those relying on big data and artificial intelligence models — in the growing polarization around gender identity. They will explore how on the one hand, media representation, legislative actions, and policy shape and reflect societal attitudes toward gender identity; on the other, they will research how gender minorities tell their stories, archive memories, and contribute to data collection initiatives that render them visible.