Hello, I’m Skyler!

I am an Assistant Professor of Sociology at McGill University. I received my PhD in Sociology from UC Berkeley and was previously a Sociologist at the Foundational AI Research (FAIR) lab at Meta.

Broadly, I interrogate sociotechnical and AI systems' inner workings and societal impact. Using mixed-methods, experiments, and STS approaches, my research critically examines the epistemic cultures of machine learning and human-machine interactions in health and relational contexts. One branch of my empirical work explores how digital platforms—such as network hospitality, online dating, and AI companions—shape modern intimacy and relationships. In applied AI, I focus on improving online accessibility by developing socially and ethically grounded multimodal translation systems for speakers of underserved languages.

My research has been featured in journals such as Nature, Big Data & Society, Information, Communication & Society, PLOS One, Sex Roles, Archives of Sexual Behavior, and Sociological Perspectives, HCI & machine learning proceedings such as CSCW, ACL, and NAACL, and media outlets such as TIME, Reuters, NPR, CNN, WIRED, The Verge, Vox, Quartz, and GQ.