Sonia Fereidooni speaks about her path to a PhD in the Digital Humanities, focused on big tech's involvement in defence and surveillance
I have learned so much from the Gates Cambridge community on a professional and personal level and have challenged myself. I feel so much more engaged and I want to talk to everyone.
Sonia Fereidooni
Sonia Fereidooni’s work aims to highlight the ethical dimensions of big tech’s involvement in defence and surveillance and its implications for those in conflict situations such as the current situation in Gaza…and potentially for every individual.
Through her multidisciplinary approach as part of her PhD in Digital Humanities, she hopes to encourage those around her, whatever their background or political ideas, to come together and forge a better, more humane world amidst fears about the rising influence of AI in unethical militaristic endeavours.
From her difficult upbringing to her many years of intense academic studies at the University of Washington and Cambridge to her work at Google, she believes she has stayed true to the values that were instilled in her from early childhood.
Early years
Sonia [2024] was born in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada and lived in the Greater Toronto area until she was 13. Both of her parents are originally from Iran, but they separated when Sonia and her brother were young. Sonia has huge admiration for her mother. She was the only woman in her undergraduate class in Mechanical Engineering in post-revolutionary Iran and worked in an auto company, becoming the main breadwinner in the family. Yet when she moved to Canada at the age of 30 her qualifications weren’t recognised. Because of this, she had to balance being a single mother of two, working and studying for her PhD.
At one point the family was temporarily homeless. Sonia says she recalls her mum studying throughout her early childhood and says that has inspired her own studies. “She really did an amazing job as a single mum and I am very close to her,” she says. “We only had each other’s resourcefulness and we were very appreciative of each other. A lot of my moral values come from observing her and seeing her determination.” Her mum would speak to Sonia and her brother about her studies, treating them as equals. “That made us want to engage academically,” she says.
Once she got her PhD, Sonia’s mother got a job in the US as a professor, focusing on renewable energies, and the family moved from a city environment in Canada to a very rural part of Eastern Washington state. That was a big change for 13-year-old Sonia. She felt very isolated in a very culturally conservative, homogenous society, particularly given she was of Iranian origin in post-911 America. She didn’t feel she belonged and calls herself a ‘nomad’. Looking back, however, she feels this experience was formative and has enabled her to understand that world. She feels now that she has more in common with white rural America. “Immigrants are not the problem,” she says. “Both immigrants and working class white Americans are being cheated.”
Sonia found the social side of school hard and describes herself as a hermit. Instead she focused on her studies. At high school, however, she discovered a passion for music and politics. She became very interested in music production and grew more outspoken and radical politically. At certain points this meant she clashed with authority figures, particularly with regard to her opinions on the US’ policy in the Middle East.
Undergraduate years
After graduating high school in 2019, Sonia began an undergraduate degree in Computer Science at the University of Washington. Her mother encouraged her to take the course because it offered a steady career. However, she didn’t really enjoy it and started a second degree in Sociology, balancing the two degrees with multiple jobs and her political activism in various groups. Now she says her degree in Computer Science has come in handy for her research in the technology field.
Sonia says she spent much of her undergraduate years exhausted, sleeping by her laptop. “It was very tough,” she says. She also managed to start up a group of first generation immigrants at the university.
At university she encountered elitism and when she opted for teaching and academia, she felt it was looked down upon because of the lower salary. This spurred her to apply to Google. Looking back, she says she appreciates the beauty of University of Washington for regulating her emotions at a time where she felt quite isolated. It put things in perspective. “If you just talk through things and see things a little bit more objectively … you’ll allow yourself to be more present.” says Sonia.
Postgraduate study
On graduating in June 2022, Sonia did a summer lecturing course in data structures and algorithms. She later moved to California and began working for Google as an engineer in the AI development sector while doing her Masters degree in Computer Science and Engineering. She worked at Google Brain and then Google DeepMind alongside senior leadership at the company. “It gave me an insight into industry and specifically into Google and big tech companies’ complicity in the ongoing genocide in Gaza,” says Sonia.
Having seen how AI is being integrated into warfare and surveillance and having joined the “No tech for Apartheid” movement and been dropped from a diversity group for her views on Palestinian women, Sonia was keen to gain more perspective on the legal side of issues surrounding surveillance and defence. She feels it is not a left or right issue as many of the conservatives she grew up with are also worried about civil liberties and surveillance. She sees it more as a class struggle.
Cambridge
Sonia left Google for a PhD in Digital Humanities at Cambridge and is mapping the supply chain between AI companies and military actions in the Middle East, highlighting how international humanitarian law is failing to keep up with AI developments in warfare. She feels it is in everyone’s interest to be worried by what is happening as, she argues, what is used to target certain groups abroad may also be used in the domestic sphere. “It’s a slippery slope,” she says. Her supervisor is Professor Anne Alexander, a former journalist during the Arab Spring. “She really pushes me,” says Sonia.
She is proud of Gates Cambridge’s sense of community and is communications officer in the Scholars Council. She says finding that community has made the last year the greatest year of her life. “I have learned so much on a professional and personal level and have challenged myself. I feel so much more engaged and I want to talk to everyone,” she says. She has made good friends who have changed her perspective on issues, for instance, one scholar’s work on insecure work and the need for unionisation has been particularly inspiring. “It taught me that we are stronger when we act together,” she says.
