Veena Dubal

After earning her PhD, Dubal joined the Clayman Institute for Gender Research as a postdoctoral fellow.^[4] Dubal was appointed as an associate professor at the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco in 2015.^[5] Her research considers the impact of digital technologies on the lives of their workers, the relationship between law, precarious work and identity and the role of law in solidarity movements.^[6]

Dubal is a critic of big tech and the rise of harmful artificial intelligence.^[7] She has described the transformation of service work following the great recession as Uberisation. She has investigated the taxi economy in San Francisco pre- and post-Uber, and how the everyday experiences of drivers changed with commodification of medallions, the leasing system, and the de-regulation following the legalization of TNCs.^[8]

Dubal, who WIRED magazine called "an unlikely star in the tech world" has called for the regulation of tech companies that promote a gig economy by misclassifying their workers as independent contractors.^[9][10][11] She was one of 75 professors across the United States who wrote to the California Legislature to support Assembly Bill 5 and to advocate that gig companies like Uber and Lyft not get a special interest carveout from California employment laws. In September 2019 California passed the law, which codified a California Supreme Court decision.^[12][13]

Dubal has studied and written about the rise of the technology labor movement through organized protests,^[14][15] such as the 2018 Google walkouts^[16] and 2019 Uber strike.^[17] Dubal has written for The Guardian,^[18] The Los Angeles Times^[19] and Slate.^[20] Dubal has advocated for cities to restrict facial recognition technologies in an effort to minimize citizen surveillance and inappropriate data collection.^[21] Dubal served on the board of directors of the Gravel Institute, a progressive organization.^[22]