I am a human rights researcher and trade unionist; tarot practitioner; and writer.
All my work is animated by the conviction that ‘we can have nice things’: healthy organisations, governance, and communities are possible; healthy, fulfilling, valuable work is possible; healthy relationships to work, technology, our organisations and communities, the non-human world, one another, and ourselves—all these, though neither simple nor easy, are possible and worth striving for.
My research and trade union work focuses on human and worker rights under digitalisation. It addresses especially the rights of workers on digital labour platforms and under algorithmic management. It also engages broader questions of worker and labour rights in the context of information technologies, including ‘artificial intelligence.’
In the course of this work I have contributed to the development of technologies, institutions, and legal instruments to establish and protect the rights of digital platform workers, including Turkopticon (2008-2020), the Ombuds Office of the Crowdsourcing Code of Conduct (2017-2020), the EU Platform Work Directive (adopted 2024), and the ILO Convention on Decent Work in the Platform Economy (adopted 2026).
I have also published research on information technology and sustainability and ecological economics.
Institutionally, I work as a:
I also write fantasy and science fiction.
Selected short fiction:
Toki Pona is a constructed language developed by Sonja Lang. This is a short text written in Toki Pona.
PhD, Information and Computer Sciences, University of California, Irvine, 2015.
MS Engineering, Arts Computation Engineering, University of California, Irvine, 2009.
BS, Applied Mathematics, Columbia University, 2007.