Hi! I’m Dr. Priya Kumar. I’m the PNC Career Development assistant professor at Pennsylvania State University’s College of Information Sciences and Technology and a non-resident fellow at the Center for Democracy and Technology.
I conduct theory-driven qualitative research that examines how privacy works when AI-driven technologies saturate everyday life. Through this work, I aim to shift AI technology discourse, scholarship, and literacy efforts toward more sociotechnical understandings of privacy and agency. That is, when we talk, study, or learn about AI-driven technologies, we need to remember that they are embedded in social contexts, not set apart from them. I primarily study privacy and technology use among youth. I earned my PhD from the University of Maryland’s College of Information Studies, and my dissertation examined the privacy implications of parents posting pictures of their children on social media, also known as sharenting. My TEDx talk on this topic has garnered more than 22,000 views.
My academic research has been published in top-tier scholarly venues across the fields of human-computer interaction, information studies, and media and communication studies. I regularly discuss my work with national and international media outlets, including The New York Times, NPR, Wired, Buzzfeed, CBC (Canada), and Insider (UK), and write about my work for media outlets including CNN, NBC, Slate, and Time, among others. My academic research has earned best paper awards from the iConference and the International Communication Association (ICA), and my news research for the American Journalism Review was nominated for a Mirror Award, the highest honor in media reporting.
Before entering academia, I was a researcher with Ranking Digital Rights, which evaluates global technology companies on their commitments to freedom of expression and privacy. I earned a master’s degree from the University of Michigan School of Information, where I designed my own curriculum in data storytelling. I hold bachelor’s degrees from the University of Maryland in journalism and government & politics, as well as a minor in Spanish.
Email me at priya [dot] kumar [at] psu [dot] edu.
Priya Kumar 