This event explored the intersection of algorithmic technologies, the professional practice of (financial) “trading”, and the social construction of markets.

Donald MacKenzie is a sociologist of science and technology at Edinburgh University. He researches the material foundations of economic activities such as financial trading and online advertising. His most recent book is Trading at the Speed of Light: How Ultrafast Algorithms are Transforming Financial Markets (Princeton University Press, 2021). His earlier books include Inventing Accuracy: A Historical Sociology of Nuclear Missile Guidance (MIT Press, 1990) and An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial Models Shape Markets (MIT Press, 2006).

Deniz Çoral is an advanced doctoral candidate in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Minnesota. She is currently finishing her dissertation, where she takes “affect” as constitutive of as well as a key methodology for analyzing everyday practices of proprietary trading and expertise at the nexus of market and state structures in the aftermath of the failed military coup in 2016 in Turkey.

The event was moderated by Mona Sloane and supported by NYU’s Institute for Public Knowledge, the 370 Jay Project, the NYU Center for Responsible AI, and the NYU Tandon Department of Technology, Culture and Society.