Diversity and Inclusion Award (Est. 2020)
The Diversity and Inclusion Award is bestowed upon alumni by the University of Illinois Alumni Association on behalf of the University of Illinois. This award recognizes those alumni who have demonstrated a commitment to promoting diversity and inclusion through their professional and/or voluntary achievements and whose accomplishments support the UIAA’s goal of promoting diversity, cross-culturalism, open-mindedness and respect within the University of Illinois community and beyond.
Safiya Umoja Noble, MS ’09 IS, PHD ’12 IS
Dr. Safiya Umoja Noble, MS ’09 IS, PHD ’12 IS, is an associate professor of information studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, where she also serves as co-founder and co-director of the UCLA Center for Critical Internet Inquiry. She is a research associate at the Oxford (University) Internet Institute and has been appointed to the Oxford Commission on AI & Good Governance, and serves on the board of the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative. Previously, she has served on faculty at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism and the U of I College of Media and its Institute of Communications Research.
Dr. Noble’s research focuses on digital media platforms and their impact on society, addressing race, gender, culture and technology. Her work is regularly cited by international media including The Guardian, the BBC, CNN International, NPR, USA Today, Time, Wired, and The New York Times.
Dr. Noble is author of the bestseller Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism, which was featured in the New York Public Library’s 2018 Best Books for Adults, and co-editor of The Intersectional Internet: Race, Sex, Culture and Class Online and Emotions, Technology & Design. She is a member of several academic journal and advisory boards.
She is the recipient of the Distinguished Alumna Award from the University’s iSchool Alumni Association; distinguished alumni honors from her undergraduate alma mater, California State University, Fresno; and the UCLA Early Career Award.