Stephen Yang | Researching Technology Futures

I'm Stephen Yang, a writer, researcher, and educator. I'm a media theorist who studies the histories and politics of digital cultures.
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Presently, I'm pursuing my PhD at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California, where I'm supported by the National Science Foundation's Graduate Research Fellowship (NSF GRFP).

I bring critical research to technology design and policy. I have held research appointments at Microsoft Research (Social Media Collective), Center for Democracy & Technology (AI Governance Lab), and Partnership on AI.

I'm always open to new connections and opportunities. You can find me on Bluesky or reach out to me at stepheny [at] usc [dot] edu.

I’m a media theorist who studies the histories and politics of digital cultures. My work excavates how institutional arrangements of automation, surveillance, and prediction shape the milieus of collective life.

Presently, my dissertation zooms in on the design of high-tech, creative offices, where I examine how comfort took hold as an organizing principle in the arrangements of ergonomic workstations, building systems, and "workplace experience" (WE).

In another research stream, I examine the human-machine configurations of assistantship through the lens of mobilities. This brings me to the history of mobile typewriters, dictation recorders, and PDAs.

Across these projects, I draw on theories and approaches from media studies, science & technology studies, visual studies, and critical geography.
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Beyond my primary research program, I also practice critical design as collective inquiries, where I collaborate with interdisciplinary researchers and community partners to investigate how alternative worlds could be made possible.

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2025

January 2025 — I'm honored to be selected as a finalist for the Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans! 77 finalists were selected from 2,617 applicants.
January 2025 — I presented my work, "Speculative Failure as Hopeful Contestation of AI Futures," as part of the Participatory AI - Research & Practice Symposium, an event organized by Connected by Data, Data & Society, and others ahead of the Paris AI Action Summit. Check out the recording here!
April 2025 - I'm presenting my work, "Uncertainty as Spectacle: Real-Time Algorithmic Techniques on the Live Music Stage," the 20th Cinema and Media Studies Graduate Student Conference at the University of Chicago, April 25–26, 2025. The theme this year is "Failing Media."
June 2025 - I presented my work on TikTok trends and AI futures at the annual conference of the International Association of Communication!
September 2025 - I'll be presenting my work on the paradoxes between longtermism and accelerationism at the annual meeting of the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S)! See you in Seattle :)
October 2025 - I'll be presenting my work on speculative failure in the age of AI at the annual conference of the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR). see you in Rio!

2024

October 2024 — I presented my work, "Infrastructuring Trends: Templates, Samples, and the Making of the Short Video Format on TikTok," at the annual conference of the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR) in Sheffield!
Summer' 24 — I interned at the Center for Democracy & Technology, where I worked on AI policy research as part of the AI Governance Lab. Here's a research report I produced

April 2024 — I received funding from the Center on Science, Technology, and Public Life at USC to study the future imaginaries of Hollywood with the advent of AI.
Jan 2024 — As part of Data & Society's series on participatory methods series on AI design and accountability, I presented the EAAMO'23 paper on participatory approaches to AI design that I co-authored with Fernando Delgado, Michael Madaio, and Qian Yang!