Hi! I'm Pegah, a PhD candidate in Information Science at Cornell University, where I study how digital automation and artificial intelligence affect work, organizations, and social life. At Cornell, I am co-advised by Karen Levy and Cristobal Cheyre.
My dissertation focuses on how self-checkout machines, loss-prevention tech, and other kinds of retail automation have been changing frontline retail work. My work on automation, surveillance, and retail has been covered in outlets like The Nation, The American Prospect, and The Cornell Chronicle. I regularly advise worker advocacy groups and lawmakers on issues related to retail tech, behavioral advertising, workplace surveillance, and automation.
I am supported by the NSF GRFP, the Siegel Family Endowment, and the MacArthur Foundation through the Cornell Artificial Intelligence, Policy, and Practice Initiative.
You can connect with me at pegah [at] infosci.cornell.edu, LinkedIn, Twitter (X), or Bluesky.
Recent News
- Jun 2025: I discussed what loss-prevention tech might require from retail workers with The American Prospect.
- Jun 2025: I did a very fun Q&A with the Siegel Family Endowment, chatting about how self-checkout is changing frontline retail work.
- Mar 2025: I was quoted in an article for Computerworld on how managers use bossware to surveil their workers.
- Jan 2025: I talked to The Nation magazine about what electronic shelf labels might mean for retail workers.
Publications
“Pseudo-Automation: How Labor-Offsetting Technologies Reconfigure Roles and Relationships in Frontline Retail Work.”
Moradi, Pegah, Karen Levy, and Cristobal Cheyre. Proceedings of the ACM: Human Computer Interaction (CSCW), 2025.
“Are There Economic Grounds for Regulating Behavioral Ads?”
Moradi, Pegah, Cristobal Cheyre, and Alessandro Acquisti. Forthcoming in the Yale Journal of Law and Technology, 2025.
"Million Eyes on the 'Robot Umps': The Case for Studying Sports in HRI Through Baseball”
Kamino, Waki, Andrea W Wen-Yi,...,Pegah Moradi,..., Karen Levy, and Malte Jung. Proceedings of the 2025 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI)., 2025.
"A Fountain Pen Come to Life": The Anxieties of the Autopen.
Moradi, Pegah, and Karen Levy. International Journal of Communication, vol. 18: Forum 1-20. 2024.
The Future of Work in the Age of AI: Displacement or Risk-Shifting?
Moradi, Pegah, and Karen Levy. Oxford Handbook of Ethics of AI. 2020.
Other Writing
I occasionally write essays about topics related and unrelated to my academic research. My personal essays have been featured in The Norton Sampler, 9th ed. and have won awards, such as the Knight Institute Expository Writing prize.
I was previously an opinion columnist for The Cornell Daily Sun, where I wrote about personal identity and campus culture. I'm particularly proud of this column—my final one for the Sun.