Ass. Prof. Dr. Anu Masso

Guest Researcher in the Postdoc Network "Algorithmed Public Spheres" from November 2019 until Januara 2020

Anu Masso is an Associate Professor of Big Data in Social Sciences at the Ragnar Nurkse Department of Innovation and Governance. Besides her post as an Associate Professor at Ragnar Nurkse Department of Innovation and Governance Anu is a part-time Senior Researcher at the Institute of Social Studies at the University of Tartu.

Anu earned a BA in sociology at the University of Tartu, a MA in sociology at the Tallinn University and a PhD in media and communication at the University of Tartu. Most recently Anu concluded her research on quantitative methods in mobility / migration studies at the ETH Zürich/Switzerland within the Marie Curie fellowship program.

Her current research focuses on the big data turn in social sciences: she is interested in developing measurements and estimating bias of social dynamics of large-scale socio-cultural phenomena, like in the fields of social network analysis methods, and comparative social media analytics. Furthermore, her research focuses on critical data studies, like the methodological shifts in social sciences in relation to the big data turn and examining socio-cultural consequences of big data, like data discrimination, algorithmic control, governance through data, etc, in the fields of spatial mobilities and migration.

Currently Anu focuses her research on developing a methodology for explaining mechanisms of automated prejudice in machine behaviour.