The Modern Language Association (MLA) has awarded Catherine D’Ignazio and Lauren F. Klein the 2022 MLA Prize for Collaborative, Bibliographical, or Archival Scholarship for their book Data Feminism (MIT Press, 2020). 

D'Ignazio is an alum of the Media Lab's Civic Media research group, and an associate professor of urban science and planning in the MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning. Klein is the Winship Distinguished Research Professor of English and Quantitative Methods at Emory University. 

In its citation for Data Feminism, the award committee wrote: Data Feminism offers a feminist standpoint and an intersectional theory to scholars working outside the humanities and social sciences, including data scientists. The book is scrupulously argued while offering a wealth of examples and summarizing previous research in both data science and cultural theory concerning race, sex and gender, and class systems. Catherine D’Ignazio and Lauren F. Klein practice what they preach, analyzing their own citations to determine whether they have included enough research diversity, giving proceeds of the book royalties to two social justice organizations, and including the widest range of references and examples that could possibly be narratively organized in one monograph. In other words, Data Feminism reflects—rigorously—on its own method.

They share the top prize with  Suzanne W. Churchill, professor of English at Davidson College; Linda A. Kinnahan, professor of English at Duquesne University; and Susan Rosenbaum, associate professor of English at the University of Georgia, who are receiving the award for Mina Loy: Navigating the Avant-Garde.

Two additional projects have received honorable mentions: The Ferrante Letters: An Experiment in Collective Criticism, by Professors Sarah Chihaya, Merve Emre, and Juno Jill Richards; and Conversations with Lorraine Hansberry, by Professor Mollie Godfrey.

Awarded each even-numbered year, the Prize is one of nineteen awards that will be presented on January 6, 2023, during the association’s annual convention, to be held in San Francisco, California.