Sara M. Watson is a technology critic, an affiliate with the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, and a writer in residence at Digital Asia Hub. Sara researches and speaks about emerging issues in the intersection of technology, culture, and society with a particular focus on data, including Big Data, the Quantified Self, algorithms, and artificial intelligence, and smart cities. She presents at technology conferences around the globe, including SXSW and O’Reilly Strata.
As a Fellow at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University, Sara published a report in the Columbia Journalism Review that proposed a constructive approach to technology criticism that not only critiques, but also offers alternatives. Her work has appeared in The Atlantic, Wired, Gizmodo, Motherboard, Harvard Business Review, Al Jazeera America, and Slate.
Sara began her career as an enterprise technology analyst at The Research Board (Gartner, Inc.), exploring implications of technological trends for Fortune 500 CIOs. She holds an MSc in the Social Science of the Internet with distinction from the Oxford Internet Institute, where her award winning thesis examined the personal data practices of the Quantified Self community. She graduated from Harvard College magna cum laude with a joint degree in English and American literature and film studies. Her work continues to draw from media studies, science and technology studies, anthropology, and literature. Sara splits time between Singapore, Cambridge, and New York. She tweets @smwat.
