Thomas Cooke

BA Hons '11 Political Science

Current Career

Organization: King's University College

Title: Part-Time Professor of Sociology


Career Overview

I’m a sociologist of technology, researching Big Data, algorithmic profiling, and digital privacy. Currently, I’m a part-time Professor instructing the Sociology of Terrorism here at King’s, and I’ll be beginning two new research positions this year. The first is in Bochum, Germany for a summer-long Research Fellowship at the Centre for Advanced Internet Studies. I’ll be doing theoretical work on alternative means of digital privacy, specifically through the kind of hacktivist software technologies that aggravate people like Mark Zuckerberg.

The second position begins this fall at the Surveillance Studies Centre, Queen’s University as a Post-Doctoral Fellow funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. I’ll be establishing an interdisciplinary research team with Professor David Lyon in order to investigate how small bits of smartphone data end are handled by aggressive security algorithms in ways that create inaccurate risk profiles governments use to screen travelers, migrants, and refugees.

Further Degrees / Certifications

MA American Studies · 2012
Western University

PhD Communication and Culture · 2017
York University

Posted: 2018