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Dr Garfield Benjamin

Lecturer

Faculty of Creative Industries, Architecture and Engineering

Garfield Benjamin

Biography

Garfield is a lecturer in sociology, teaching issues of data, technology, media, power, identity and society. Before that, they were a postdoctoral researcher. Prior to joining Solent, Garfield worked at the Birmingham Centre for Cyber Security and Privacy, after completing a PhD in Digital Technology Theory and Practice at the University of Wolverhampton.

Research interests

Garfield’s research focuses on societal issues with technology. They are particularly interested in how our identities are constructed with and through technologies, as well as the many forms of inequalities that are produced through the inequitable ways technology is used in society. Their recent work has built on queer and intersectional critiques to examine the social narratives that surround social media platforms, AI, data, privacy and algorithms, as well as mapping power structures of sociotechnical assemblages. Garfield is particularly interested in tech policy and regulation and engages with external networks and policy calls for submissions around issues of privacy and algorithms, for example, the use of facial recognition (evidence cited by the Scottish Parliament Justice Sub-Committee on Policing). They regularly provide comment for the press on issues of technology that affect people’s everyday lives.

ORCID ID

0000-0001-9885-6816

Keywords

Technology, privacy, algorithms, platforms, social media, performativity, social narratives

Further information

PI, ‘Privacy I/O’ – Solent University (Research England)

PI, ‘The Speculative City’ – Solent University (RIKE)

Co-I, ‘Return to Sender’ – Europeana

Courses

BA (Hons) Sociology

An exciting subject – sociology challenges the world in which we live, including politics, media and social inequality. Get practical experience to work in education, PR, charity or government.