Dr Ash Watson is a sociologist of technology and fiction. She works at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society at UNSW Sydney. She uses qualitative and arts-based methods to research the emergence and social impact of “disruptive” technologies, from AI to digital archives to zines. Her writing is published in Nature, American Journal for Cultural Sociology, and Qualitative Research. Find her recent work here.

Her debut novel Into the Sea (2020) was published in Brill’s award-winning Social Fictions Series. Following a group of young adults through a year of the mundane and extraordinary, the story considers what it means to live “the Australian way of life.” Learn more about the book and buy a copy via the publisher. Her creative writing is published in Overland, SCUM mag, Brain Drip and Bareknuckle Poet. She also makes zines at Frances St Press.

Ash is the inaugural Fiction Editor of The Sociological Review, heading the journal’s short story series. She is also the creator and editor of So Fi Zine, a digital and DIY print publication for fiction, poetry and visual art, which has published nearly 200 pieces over 9 editions since 2017. For updates about these and other sociological fiction projects, subscribe to the newsletter. Contact Ash via email or follow her on Twitter.