About

Hi! I’m Dr. Samantha Shorey, a visiting assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh in the department of Communication. I’m a field researcher who studies automation — like AI and robots — in the workplace. In my research projects, I study how communication about innovation shapes technology design, technology culture and technology labor. I seek to highlight the contributions of people who are often overlooked in our dominant cultural narratives about technology innovation, paying close attention to all the creativity and ingenuity of workers (women especially).

I am currently a fellow at the Roosevelt Institute where I’m advancing policies to support the workforces that make, implement and maintain AI technologies. In 2026, I will be a panel member of the AI100: Stanford’s 100 year study of AI.

Before I joined Pitt, I was an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin and a member of UT’s ethical AI research initiative Good Systems. I earned my PhD in Communication from the University of Washington, where I was a researcher at the Tactile and Tactical Design Lab in the Department of Human Centered Design and Engineering. In 2019, I was a fellow at the Smithsonian Museum’s Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation. I’ve also worked with collaborative research teams at the University of Oxford, MIT, and as a pre-doctoral intern at Airbnb. I earned my Masters in Communication from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

e-mail me: sshorey (at) utexas.edu | bluesky: @samshorey