Veena Dubal

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Veena B. Dubal
EducationStanford University (BA)
University of California, Berkeley (JD, PhD)
Scientific career
InstitutionsUniversity of California College of the Law, San Francisco
Clayman Institute for Gender Research
ThesisWage Slave or Entrepreneur?: Contesting the Dualism of Legal Worker Identities

Veena B. Dubal is a Professor of Law at the University of California, Irvine School of Law. Her research focuses on the intersection of law, technology, and precarious work. Professor Dubal is widely cited for her scholarship on gig work.

Early life and education[edit]

Dubal studied international relations and feminist studies at Stanford University and graduated with honours in 2003. She attended to the University of California, Berkeley for her Juris Doctor, which she completed in 2006. While in law school Dubal was a community activist focused on anti-war campaigns. She was a part of the Alliance of South Asians Taking Action.[1]

Dubal was a Fulbright Program scholar in India from 2007 to 2008. After graduating, she was a Berkeley Law Foundation Fellow and public interest attorney at the Asian Law Caucus until December 2012. Dubal earned a PhD in Jurisprudence and Social Policy at UC Berkeley in 2014.[2] Her doctoral research used historical and ethnographic methodologies to study San Francisco taxi workers.[3]

Research and career[edit]

After earning her PhD, Dubal joined the Clayman Institute for Gender Research as a postdoctoral fellow.[4] Dubal was appointed to 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]

Journalism and advocacy[edit]

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

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Day 1: Power to the People – Not Just the President". Fog City Journal. 2009-01-21. Retrieved 2019-11-10.
  2. ^ "Ph.D. Program (JSP)". Berkeley Law. Retrieved 2019-11-10.
  3. ^ Farivar, Cyrus (2018-07-10). "Bay Area: Join us 7/11 to learn what the law has to say about the gig economy". Ars Technica. Retrieved 2019-11-10.
  4. ^ University, © Stanford; Stanford; California 94305 (2018-07-09). "Faculty Fellows' Lunch Featuring Clayman Postdocs: Veena Dubal, Jonna Louvrier". The Clayman Institute for Gender Research. Retrieved 2019-11-10.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  5. ^ "Veena Dubal, Associate Professor of Law - University of California College of the Law, San Francisco". UC Hastings Law | San Francisco. Retrieved 2019-11-10.
  6. ^ Francisco, UC Hastings Law | San. "Veena Dubal, Associate Professor of Law - UC Hastings". UC Hastings Law | San Francisco. Retrieved 2019-11-10.
  7. ^ "'People fix things. Tech doesn't fix things.'". TechCrunch. 21 October 2019. Retrieved 2019-11-10.
  8. ^ "Veena Dubal. Actuarial Labors: Freedom to/at Risk in a Taxi to Uber Economy | UC Berkeley Sociology Department". sociology.berkeley.edu. Retrieved 2019-11-10.
  9. ^ Dubal, Veena (2019-09-19). "Let's follow California's lead and regulate companies like Uber | Veena Dubal". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2019-11-10.
  10. ^ "State High Court Ruling Could Have Big Impact on 'Gig' Firms". KQED. 2018-05-01. Retrieved 2019-11-10.
  11. ^ "AB5: Regulating the Gig Economy is Good for Workers and Democracy | ACS". 2019-09-24. Retrieved 2019-11-10.
  12. ^ Conger, Kate; Scheiber, Noam (2019-09-11). "California Bill Makes App-Based Companies Treat Workers as Employees". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-11-10.
  13. ^ California Supreme Court Rules on Gig Workers, retrieved 2019-11-10
  14. ^ Organizing Tech | AI Now 2019 Symposium, retrieved 2019-11-10
  15. ^ Asher-Schapiro, Avi (2019-03-06). "Move Fast and Build Solidarity". ISSN 0027-8378. Retrieved 2019-11-10.
  16. ^ "How the Google walkout transformed tech workers into activists". Los Angeles Times. 2019-11-06. Retrieved 2019-11-10.
  17. ^ Dubal, Veena (2019-05-10). "Uber Was Designed to Isolate Drivers. That's Why the Strike Was a Triumph". Slate Magazine. Retrieved 2019-11-10.
  18. ^ "Veena Dubal | The Guardian". the Guardian. Retrieved 2019-11-10.
  19. ^ "Op-Ed: The courts decided gig workers are covered by wage and overtime protections. Now their bosses are trying to evade the law". Los Angeles Times. 2018-08-14. Retrieved 2019-11-10.
  20. ^ "Veena Dubal". Slate Magazine. Retrieved 2019-11-10.
  21. ^ Dubal, Veena (2019-05-30). "San Francisco was right to ban facial recognition. Surveillance is a real danger | Veena Dubal". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2019-11-10.
  22. ^ "About – Gravel Institute". Retrieved 2022-02-19.