Two Fellowships Support Ph.D. Candidate Phoebe Chua’s Research into Inclusive Hiring Practices

January 4, 2021

Informatics Ph.D. candidate Phoebe Chua was recently awarded a Chancellor’s Club Fellowship in the amount of $3,000. Fellows for this program are selected on the basis of demonstrated academic excellence, accomplishments and leadership qualities consistent with the mission of the Chancellor’s Club to represent, develop and support our future leaders. Chua also received $1,000 through a Public Impact Fellowship, which supports doctoral or MFA students conducting research that has the potential to substantially impact the public sphere.

“I’m truly honored to receive the two fellowships,” says Chua, whose research examines application and hiring practices. “I’m looking at the hiring process of tech companies, with the aim of contributing strategies for inclusive hiring practices.”

Chua, who is conducting a second year of data collection with employers and applicants, says the fellowship funding will support her continued engagement in public scholarship. “In particular, I am excited to share my findings with hiring decision-makers and contribute ways for them to support applicants throughout the hiring process.”

Her doctoral adviser, Associate Professor of Informatics Melissa Mazmanian of the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences (ICS), highlights the practical ramifications of Chua’s work. “In the short term, her work will shed much needed light on the biases and potentially exclusionary practices in hiring for prestigious knowledge-based occupations,” she says. “Long term, Phoebe’s research has the potential to change how we understand and intervene in hiring in elite occupations. Given the rise of hiring algorithms and AI for various HR functions, it is critical that we understand how hiring happens currently.”

The two fellowships follow Chua’s summer invitation to join the 2020-2021 cohort of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society.

Shani Murray