Assistant Professor, Public Policy
About
Yousif Hassan is an assistant professor at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy and School of Information. His research focuses on the social, economic, and political implications of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, natural language processing, and blockchain, among other technologies, with a particular emphasis on technoscientific innovation, development, and the digital economy. Hassan’s interest is at the intersection of social justice and technology and innovation policy. His most recent work investigates the development of AI and its innovation ecosystem across multiple African countries, focusing on AI, data governance, the data economy, and the sociotechnical knowledge production and innovation practices of governments, scientists, and the tech industry.
Hassan is a former Illinois distinguished fellow at the School of Information Sciences and a faculty affiliate with the Center for African Studies, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He was a research fellow at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. He started his career as a software engineer, including as both a manager in multinational corporations and a co-founder of a tech company focused on AI, blockchain, and digital transformation, which led him to the academic field of science and technology studies.
Areas of interest:
Decolonial and postcolonial computing. Postcolonial, decolonial, intersectional, and Indigenous science and technology studies. Critical data studies. Critical innovation studies. ICT/AI for development (ICT4D/AI4D) and Responsible AI. Political economy of technoscience. African and Black studies. Politics of science and technology. Technology policy.
