About Jack Bandy

Jack Bandy, PhD, is an assistant professor of Computer Science at Transylvania University. He completed his PhD in Northwestern's Technology and Social Behavior program, working in the Computational Journalism Lab. His dissertation research focused on algorithmic systems like Twitter, Apple News, and Facebook, and their role in human communication.

📲 Contact Information:

Over time I've become more convinced that everything worthwhile is done with other people — "what force on earth is weaker than the feeble strength of one?" Here are the best ways to connect with me:

• 📧 Send me an email directly, to jbandy(at)transy{dot}edu
• 📮 Send me an email using the form below

You are also welcome to follow me on BlueSky (preferred), LinkedIn, Medium, GitHub, and/or Twitter (X), and you can reach me directly with this form:

📣 Recent Updates:

• December 2024: I enjoyed contributing to these comments on the Draft Delegated Act of the Digital Services Act (DSA), with some great folks at the Social Science Research Council
• November 2024: excited to share a new technical report about algorithm auditing and AI transparency via differential privacy!
• January 2024: teaching fairness and bias in algorithms this semester for the first time, as well as a section of Intro to Computer Science
• December 2023: completed my first semester at Transy!
• September 2023: Began my new job an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Transylvania University! 👨🏻‍🏫
• June 2023: I graduated, and my dissertation is published on ProQuest! 🎓
• May 2023: I successfully defended my dissertation, and am now wrapping up at Northwestern before the move to Lexington, Kentucky this summer.

📜 Old News:

• August 2022: I'm excited to present a preview of my dissertation at the AI, Ethics, and Society conference! Check out my abstract, poster, and/or slides.
• July 2022: Another preprint available on SSRN! I wrote this paper with Tomo Lazovich during my Twitter internship, and it's been accepted to ICWSM.
• May 2022: New preprint available on SSRN! Forthcoming book chapter about the local news crisis, The New York Times, and Twitter 📖🗞
• October 2021: Fall internship with Twitter's META team 🐣
• September 2021: New publication in Social Media + Society 📊📄
• September 2021: Presented on "The Science of Social Media Algorithms" at Uncontrolled Variables (link to my slides) 📽🎤
• August 2021: Now serving as a board member for the AI@NU Graduate Student Group
• July 2021: BookCorpus paper accepted to NeurIPS Datasets track 📚 📄
• July 2021: New essay for Real Life 🖋
• June 2021: Developed this new website 👻
• May 2021: New op-ed (on police tech) in the Chicago Tribune 📰
• April 2021: New op-ed (on algorithmic transparency) in The Hill 🏛
• April 2021: CSCW 2021 Papers now in the official ACM Library 😎
• March 2021: Volunteered at FAccT 2021 🦜🙂

📄 Curriculum Vitae:

I am off the job market for the time being, but you can see a recent CV below:

Other Tidbits

Just a sample of some art I find meaningful / inspiring (see also my book list):

🎬 Favorite Movies:

• The Before Trilogy directed by Richard Linklater
• Contact directed by Robert Zemeckis (story by Carl Sagan)
• The Snowman by Dianne Jackson
• Devs directed by Alex Garland
• Good Will Hunting directed by Gus Van Sant
• Ad Astra directed by James Gray
• The Post directed by Steven Spielberg

🎙 Favorite Speeches and Poems:

• The Shapes of Stories by Kurt Vonnegut
• This is Water by David Foster Wallace
• The Mad Farmer Liberation Front by Wendell Berry
• The Three Oddest Words by Wisława Szymborska
• Questionnaire by Wendell Berry

💬 Longer Bio

I was recently asked for a 100-150 word biography – here is a version of that:

Jack Bandy is an assistant professor of Computer Science at Transylvania University. He completed his Ph.D. in the Technology and Social Behavior program at Northwestern University, where he worked in the Computational Journalism Lab. His dissertation research focused on algorithmic systems and their role in human communication, combining topics and methods from algorithm auditing, data science, human-computer interaction, ethics, and media studies. He also writes on topics related to technology and society, with recent pieces in The Hill, Real Life Magazine, and the Chicago Tribune. Jack holds an M.S. in Computer Science from the University of Kentucky, and also has work experience at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Legit Apps, and Twitter.