Safiya Noble, the David O. Sears Presidential Professor of Social Sciences and a professor of gender studies, African American studies and information studies, will receive an honorary doctorate granted by the Institute of Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology at Leiden University, the Netherlands.
Her research focuses on the design of digital media and its impact on society, as well as how digital technology and artificial intelligence intersect with issues of race, gender, culture and power. Noble is director of the UCLA Center on Resilience & Digital Justice, co-director of the Minderoo Initiative on Tech and Power at the UCLA Center for Critical Internet Inquiry and a faculty director of UCLA’s DataX initiative.
“Noble shows how seemingly neutral technologies can amplify social inequality and affect people’s access to knowledge, opportunities and rights. Her work has sparked a broad debate about the need for transparency, regulation and ethics in the tech sector,” Leiden University said in a statement. “Noble will receive an honorary degree for her ability to communicate complex technological issues to a wide audience and for her calls for a just, inclusive digital society.”
In 2021, she was recognized as a MacArthur Foundation Fellow for transforming the understanding of the ways digital technologies and internet architectures replicate and magnify discriminatory racial, gender and power dynamics.
Leiden University confers honorary doctorates to recognize individuals for their contributions to science, society or the university’s core values, such as freedom and academic excellence. Noble will receive the degree on Feb. 9, 2026, during a ceremony at the university.
