Book Talk | Mona Sloane | Predicted: How AI Is Restructuring Social Life
Join the Institute for Public Knowledge on Monday, September 14 (5:30-7:00 PM) for an event with Mona Sloane. She will discuss her new book, Predicted: How AI Is Restructuring Social Life, with Allison Pugh and Charlton McIlwain.
Mona Sloane, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Data Science and Media Studies at the University of Virginia (UVA). As a sociologist, she studies the intersection of technology and society, specifically in the context of AI design, use, and policy. At UVA, she is a Faculty Co-Lead in the Digital Technology for Democracy Lab at the Karsh Institute of Democracy, Affiliated Faculty with the Department of Women, Gender and Sexuality, and Faculty Affiliate with the Thriving Youth in a Digital Environment (TYDE) research initiative. She also convenes the Co-Opting AI series and serves as the editor of the Co-Opting AI book series at the University of California Press as well as the Technology Editor for Public Books. Mona’s book Predicted: How AI Is Restructuring Social Life is out now with the University of California Press and explores how predictive systems are rewiring everyday experiences. Her growing research group Sloane Lab conducts empirical research on the implications of technology for the organization of society. Its focus lies on AI as a social phenomenon that intersects with wider cultural, economic, material, and political conditions. The lab spearheads social science leadership in applied work on responsible AI, public scholarship, and technology policy. More here: monasloane.org.
Allison Pugh is Professor of Sociology at Johns Hopkins University and a 2026 Guggenheim fellow. Her research focuses on how economic trends like inequality, insecurity and automation shape people’s struggle for dignity, honor and social bonds. Her fourth book The Last Human Job: The Work of Connecting in a Disconnected World argued that “connective labor” is under siege by data analytics and under threat from AI. It won the 2025 best book award from the American Sociological Association (ASA), has been translated into four languages, and was featured in The New York Times, The Guardian, and Science. She is also the author of The Tumbleweed Society: Working and Caring in an Age of Insecurity, which examines how job precariousness shapes commitment, and Longing and Belonging: Parents, Children, and Consumer Culture, which won multiple awards and was widely reviewed. The 2024-5 ASA Vice President, Pugh has been a fellow of the American Council of Learned Societies, the Berggruen Institute, and the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, and a visiting scholar in Germany, France and Australia.
Charlton McIlwain is the Vice Provost for Faculty Engagement and Development and a Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication. His scholarly work focuses on the intersections of race, digital media, and racial justice activism. He is the founder of the Center for Critical Race and Digital Studies and the author of the new book, Black Software: The Internet & Racial Justice, From the AfroNet to Black Lives Matter, by Oxford University Press. He also co-authored the award-winning book, Race Appeal: How Political Candidates Invoke Race In U.S. Political Campaigns. He received his Ph.D. in Communication and a Master’s of Human Relations, both from the University of Oklahoma, and a B.A. in Family Psychology from Oklahoma Baptist University.