Samantha Shorey

The University of Texas at Austin, University of Pittsburgh, Austin College

Papers

Total Citations

H-Index

About

Samantha Shorey is a leading scholar at the intersection of labor, technology, and feminist science and technology studies, whose work critically examines the hidden human costs of automation and artificial intelligence. Her research focuses on the often-invisible labor required to integrate AI and robotics into essential workplaces, particularly in contexts of waste management and frontline work. Shorey’s most-cited paper, “Patchwork: The Hidden, Human Labor of AI Integration within Essential Work” (2023, 57 citations), reveals how workers performed substantial, unacknowledged effort to make AI systems function during the COVID-19 pandemic, challenging narratives of seamless automation. Her subsequent work, including “Minding the Stop-Gap” (2025) and “Dis//assemblages of AI” (2024), further explores the unplanned, temporary labor and repair work that sustain human-robot collaboration, drawing on feminist theory to highlight resistance and breakdown as sites of agency. With a growing citation impact, Shorey’s contributions are vital for students and researchers seeking to understand the real-world implications of AI, emphasizing that technological progress depends on the often-erased work of human beings.