About
Christian Sandvig is the Director of ESC: The Center for Ethics, Society, and Computing at the University of Michigan.
Sandvig is also the H. Marshall McLuhan Collegiate Professor of Digital Media appointed in the Department of Communication & Media and the School of Information, with additional appointments in the Digital Studies Institute, Science, Technology and Society (STS), Art & Design, and Science, Technology, and Public Policy (STPP). He is a social researcher studying the consequences of algorithmic systems that curate and organize culture. He is recently known for research on "algorithm auditing."
Previously, Sandvig was a computer programmer with industry experience consulting for a Fortune 500 company, a regional government, and a San Francisco Bay Area software start-up. As a private citizen he was the named plaintiff in Sandvig v. Barr, a successful lawsuit brought by the ACLU to challenge the constitutionality of the major US anti-hacking law on behalf of computer researchers and investigative journalists. The suit was cited by the US Supreme Court.
