Rita Raley
  • Office:
    South Hall 2703
  • Office Hours:
    Winter term: Thursdays, 2:00-4:00pm

Rita Raley is Professor of English, with courtesy appointments in Film and Media Studies, Comparative Literature, and Global Studies. Her work focuses on digital media in relation to contemporary literary, artistic, cultural, and linguistic practices. One of her central research questions concerns language and technology: this work began with analyses of Global English, machine translation, codework, and electronic literature and has most recently led to publications focusing on GPT-2 and generative AI. She also researches art-activist, tactical, participatory, appropriative, or otherwise hands-on engagement with sociotechnical systems—which means, most recently, what people are doing with large language models. Her current collaborative projects work within, and toward, Critical Machine Learning and “Critical AI.”

//–> For information about the “critical machine learning” project, see a recent interview together with Fabian Offert on the UCHRI Foundry site.

In addition to previous teaching positions at the University of Minnesota, Rice, and NYU, she has held fellowship and short-term residency appointments hosted by the National Humanities Center; the University of Bergen, Norway; the Dutch Foundation for Literature in Amsterdam; and UCLA, the last as part of a Mellon-funded project on the Digital Humanities. She co-edits the “Electronic Mediations” book series for the University of Minnesota Press and is an Associate Editor for ASAP/Journal.

Selected administrative experience: Vice-Chair, Academic Senate (2020-2022; 2023-2024); Systemwide Library and Scholarly Information Advisory Committee (2020-2024); UC Humanities Research Institute Advisory Committee (2015-2018); Chair, UCSB Program Review Panel (2015-2017 [member and vice-chair, 2013-2015]); Chair, UCSB Graduate Council (2011-2012); UC Coordinating Committee on Graduate Affairs (2011-2012); IHC Advisory Board (2005-2008).

Past and upcoming events

Research Areas

  • c. 1945-present
  • Digital Humanities
  • Global Literatures
  • Media Studies
  • Science and Technology Studies

Research Center Affiliations

Rita Raley
  • Office:
    South Hall 2703
  • Office Hours:
    Winter term: Thursdays, 2:00-4:00pm
  • Email:
  • Mailing Address:
    English Department UC Santa Barbara Santa Barbara, CA 93106-3170
  • Personal Website

Selected Lectures

Rita Raley's Bookshelf

Courses Taught