Kelly Lewis is a Research Fellow at the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society (ADM+S), and the Emerging Technologies Lab at Monash University. Her research focuses on the social, political, and cultural implications of digital media technologies, platforms, and data cultures, as well as new and innovative digital methods and critical approaches for studying them. Kelly’s work has a particular focus on investigating paradigms of power asymmetries, discrimination, violence, and political (in)visibility that manifest through opaque relations, logics, and data flows–and probes critical reflection on alternative pathways for engendering more progressive, just, and inclusive digital futures.

Her research takes an interdisciplinary approach, drawing from and building upon critical theory and methods from digital media and communication studies, visual politics, cultural studies, postcolonial theory, critical race theory, critical discourse analysis, and critical platform studies.

Kelly’s current work focuses on two distinct but related project areas: First, the Data Program for ADM+S, led by Professor Mark Andrejevic, where she identifies and maps social issues that arise through data-driven and automated decision-making systems to highlight the significance for society, while also developing conceptual approaches and innovative methods to studying these systems. Her second research area involves an Australian Research Council DECRA fellowship that studies the development, adoption, and use of digital technology by the insurance industry in Australia (also known as insurtech), which is led by Dr Jathan Sadowski. These research areas complement one another by investigating the social, cultural, political, and economic issues raised by automated decision-making and data-driven digital technologies, while building on other ADM+S research programs that investigate common themes of data collection, use, storage, and application of data with concern for achieving greater transparency, accountability, and fairness.