JUST Data Lab

The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them. —Ida B. Wells-Barnett


The Ida B. Wells JUST Data Lab brings together students, educators, activists, and artists to develop a critical and creative approach to data conception, production, and circulation. Their aim is to rethink and retool data for justice.

The CDH is committed to using data for social justice and to expanding the field of critical data studies at Princeton. We follow the seven precepts of Data Feminism, as described by Lauren Klein and Catherine D’Ignazio in their book Data Feminism. The principles are as follows: examine power, challenge power, elevate emotion and embodiment, rethink binaries and hierarchies, embrace pluralism, consider context, and make labor visible.

We devoted the 2017-2018 year to examining these issues during our Year of Data. During that year, we were delighted to welcome Ruha Benjamin as a Faculty Fellow, where Benjamin helped us curate several events, including the kickoff “Who Counts: A Symposium on Intersectional Data,” with Lauren Klein and Mimi Onuoha. Our keynote events for the Year of Data included a lecture by Safiya Noble, author of Algorithms of Oppression. The day after Noble’s packed lecture, Benjamin convened the first meeting of the Just Data Lab, now known as the Ida B. Wells JUST Data Lab, at the Center for Digital Humanities. The teaching materials drawn from this workshop are available on the Ida B. Wells Just Data Lab website.

In 2020, Benjamin launched the Pandemic Portal—a set of resources developed in collaboration with community organizations that will remain freely accessible for future research, education, and advocacy. The CDH is proud to provide ongoing support to the Lab, which brings together students, educators, activists, and artists to develop a critical and creative approach to data conception, production, and circulation.