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Ash Watson

I am a digital and cultural sociologist based at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. My research examines AI and other emerging tech; cultural institutions like public libraries, diy arts, alt media and grassroots archives; and creative queer and feminist methods for social research.

I am also: Affiliate of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society (ADM+S); Fiction Editor of The Sociological Review; the creator/editor of So Fi Zine, a twice-yearly publication for sociological fiction, poetry and visual art. My novel Into the Sea was published by Brill in 2020. I run the indie zine publisher and distro Frances Street Press.

I have held a number of visiting positions: in 2025 with The University of Glasgow, in 2023 with the ESRC Centre for SocioDigital Futures at the University of Bristol, and in 2017 at Goldsmiths, University of London as a Doctoral Endeavour Research Fellow.

My grants and publications are listed here.

Contact me via email at ashleigh.watson@unsw.edu.au. Subscribe for sociological fiction news via awtsn.substack.com.

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