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Xiaochang Li

Assistant Professor of Communication

Xiaochang Li is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication. Her research concerns the history and ongoing impact of computing and digital technology and focuses on questions surrounding the relationship between information technology and knowledge production. Her current book project traces  the history of automatic speech recognition and natural language processing and examines how the problem of mapping communication to computation shaped the rise of "data-driven" artificial intelligence, machine learning, and related algorithmic practices. Her research has appeared in journals such as *Technology & Culture* and *Osiris* and she received the Bernard S. Finn IEEE History Prize in 2020 for her co-authored article with Mara Mills, "Vocal Features: From Voice Identification to Speech Recognition by Machine." Outside Stanford, Xiaochang is also a member of the organizing committee for SIGCIS (Special Interest Group in Computing, Information, and Society) and a member of the SHOT Levinson prize committee.

Prior to joining Stanford, she was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Epistemes of Modern Acoustics at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science and received her PhD from the Department of Media, Culture, and Communication at New York University.