Dr. Rui Hou

Hey there! I’m Dr. Rui Hou and I am currently an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology at Saint Mary’s University (SMU). Prior to joining SMU, I worked as postdoctoral scholar at Toronto Metropolitan University (2022-2025) and University of Toronto (2020-2022). I achieved Ph.D. degree in sociology from Queen’s University in 2020.  

I am broadly interested in the sociologies of technology, labour and work, emotions, culture, and politics. Empirically, I work in two domains: (1) My primary research stream focuses on how platformization, datafication, and artificial intelligence restructure expertise, redistribute risk, and generate new forms of control and inequality; I investigate this question by examining actors, rules, institutions, and labour practices across three distinct yet interconnected domains: state governance, digital creative industries, and mental health care. (2) Beyond purely theoretical critiques, my second research direction focuses on community-based interdisciplinary collaboration, aiming to address the challenges that innovations in digital technology pose to the well-being of marginalized and racialized communities.