danah boyd, Data Are Made, Not Found

Prof. danah boyd (Geri Gay Professor of Communications, Cornell University; founder, Data + Society) has a new book out — Data Are Made, Not Found (University of Chicago, 2026) — and she’ll be in Chicago to talk about it early next month.

If you haven’t read danah’s latest yet, I thought you might like to hear a little about it — and I hope that means you will then buy the book, hear danah on her book tour, and then join us in doing something about it. Here’s a tiny snippet that explains a bit about her “why” behind this book:

I see the Census Bureau’s civil servants as heroes—not because I believe in bureaucracy, but because these workers are committed to the ideal version of the American project. Public servants toil in the shadows, making consequential choices with little recognition, only to be attacked for trying to make the system work for the people. Too often, they’re blamed for the Kafkaesque nightmare in which they operate, even as politicians and advocates quietly configure what they are able to do.

danah refers to the book as a “love letter” to the civil servants who have devoted themselves to this core pillar of our democracy. She makes the case that we all ought to pay a lot more attention to how the data are gathered and why it matters to everyone:

This book is the story of how the 2020 census came to be. But it is also a story about the future of data. It is a story of survival but also fragility. It is a story of bureaucratic resilience but also of Jenga politics. My goal in telling you these entangled stories is to invite you to see the tremendous achievements of a competent bureaucracy so you can reckon with the perils of losing it.

Here are notes on when and where danah will be in Chicago soon:

danah boyd is coming to the Chicago area to share insights from her new book “Data Are Made, Not Found: A Story of Politics, Power, and the Civil Servants Who Saved the US Census.” This is an opportunity to talk about the importance of democracy’s data. There will be three events of different styles.

– November 9, 9:30AM @ University of Illinois-Chicago: A conversation about the book with Chancellor Marie Lynn Miranda. Register by November 6: https://chancellor.uic.edu/events-2/chair-chats/chair-chats-with-danah-boyd/

– November 9, 4:30PM @ University of Chicago: Talk, discussion, and book signing as part of the Data Science Institute with Moon Duchin. More info here: https://datascience.uchicago.edu/events/danah-boyd-cornell-distinguished-speaker-series/

– November 10, 12:30PM @ Northwestern University: Book talk and discussion. More info here: https://planitpurple.northwestern.edu/event/647664

If you come in-person, we will be doing book signings. There should be copies to buy there (or bring your copy with you!). The book is available in French and English, audiobook, and ebook. For a full tour list and info about the book, see: https://www.danah.org/data-are-made-not-found/

At MacArthur Foundation, we make grants to Data + Society, to researchers from Cornell University, and to organizations that support civil servants who are struggling mightily to uphold the key institutions that underpin our democracy — including the census. Learn more by checking out the Technology in the Public Interest program at MacArthur Foundation.

I hope you will join me in buying danah’s new book and spreading the word about why data, the census, and those who work in our federal government matter so greatly at this fragile moment for our democracy.