Postdoctoral Affiliate
Maayan Roichman is a sociocultural anthropologist who specializes in the study of cultural production in the fields of alternative medicine, filmmaking, and artificial intelligence. She earned her doctoral degree at the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and currently serves as an Azrieli Postdoctoral Fellow and Departmental Lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Tel Aviv University. Maayan is also a postdoctoral affiliate at the University of Oxford's School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography. Additionally, she has held a postdoctoral position in the Department of Industrial Engineering at Tel Aviv University and was a visiting postdoctoral scholar at Stanford University.
Her thesis focused on ethnography of the new artistic genre of 'personal cinema' in Israel, examining the professional development of young Israeli filmmakers and their relationships with the social systems and institutions in which they operate.
Her current research project investigates how culture shapes the development of conversational AI in the United States and Israel, with a particular focus on the perspectives of those involved in its creation. Her research sheds light on the views of developers regarding language, authenticity, ethics, and the future, and how these views are influenced by cultural contexts. Through her work, she aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of the social settings in which algorithmic outputs are constructed and the ways in which cultural values and practices impact technological development.
