Dr P M Krafft
Job Title
Lecturer in Sociology; Co-Director, MSc Digital Sociology
Research interests
- Culture
- Data & Digital
- Digital sociology
- Methods
- Science, technology and innovation
- Technology and material culture
Research interests
My research is concerned with the genuine and the artificial. I examine the in-between spaces of the social, material, and mechanical productions of truth and fakes. My past and current research in this area includes studies on AI and machine learning; rumours, misinformation, and disinformation; bubbles and fads; museum collections; and gems and jewellery. I follow a pluralistic methodology and my work combines qualitative, quantitative, computational, participatory, and reflexive methods. I co-organise the Edinburgh Authenticity Studies Reading Group and previously co-led the Critical Platform Studies Group. I currently teach Issues and Concepts in Digital Society and Computational Methods and AI in Social Data Science, and I guest lecture on methods and research design across the Schools of Social and Political Science and Informatics.
Prospective PhD Students
I am accepting applications from prospective PhD students, but please be aware that I keep a close eye out for AI. I understand the temptation to use AI, but I don't use it myself for any form of writing. I find that AI-generated text tends to be formulaic, and AI-generated proposals tend not to be the most innovative or inspiring. I value creativity and authenticity, and encourage you to showcase your unique thoughts and story using your own voice, even if that means your outreach emails or application materials might be less polished.
Digital Identitifiers
ORCID:
0000-0001-8570-2180
You can find code and data for many of my projects at my GitHub, @pkrafft.
Background
Dr Peaks Krafft (they/them) PhD, Cert GA is Lecturer in Sociology and Co-Director of the MSc Digital Sociology and the MSc Digital Sociology with Social Data Science at the University of Edinburgh. Prior to joining Edinburgh, Dr Peaks launched the University of the Arts London's MA Internet Equalities and before that lectured in Social Data Science at the University of Oxford Internet Institute. Dr Krafft received their PhD in Computer Science from MIT in 2017; undertook postdoctoral work at the University of Washington Information School, the University of California Berkeley Department of Psychology, and the Data & Society Research Institute; and received their Cert GA from the Gemmological Association of Great Britain in 2025. Their publications cross sociology, AI, cognitive science, and science & technology studies.