Faculty Directory

William R. Frey

Part-time Faculty

Photo of William R. Frey

William R. Frey

MSW

Contact

Email: william.frey@bc.edu

ORCID

Education

  • B.A., University of Michigan
  • M.S.W., University of Michigan

Research Interests

Race

Whiteness

Social Media

Technology

Artificial Intelligence

Expertise

  • Community Development and Organizing
  • Social and Economic Inclusion
  • Macro
  • Systemic Inequities

Personal Website

CV OR RESUME

Biography

William R. Frey studies how race is produced, reified, and disrupted in digital contexts with the goals of eradicating various forms of inequality and their racial justifications, and cultivating healthy relationships across social fractures. His research is informed by 15 years of inter-/intragroup dialogic facilitation practice focused on people鈥檚 experiences with race, racism, and whiteness.

William is doctoral candidate at Columbia University's School of Social Work, researcher in the Cogburn Research Group, research collaborator in the Citizens and Technology (CAT) Lab at Cornell University, and co-organizer of the Critical Race and Intersectional Technology (CRIT) Collective with Dr. Kishonna L. Gray at the University of Michigan. William's research can be found in the Journal of Research on Adolescence, Social Science Computer Review, Advances in Social Work, and elsewhere. He is also a Resident Tutor in Adams House at Harvard College.

Selected Publications

Frey, W. R. (2023). Everyday Whiteness and the Failure of the Private Life. In Social Work, White Supremacy, and Racial Justice: Reckoning with Our History, Interrogating Our Present, Reimagining Our Future, 243-253. DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780197641422.003.0013

Frey, W. R., Ward., L. M., Weiss, A., & Cogburn, C. D. (2022). Digital White Racial Socialization: Social Media and the Case of Whiteness. Journal of Research on Adolescence, Special Issue: 鈥淥ppression is as American as Apple Pie鈥�: Learning About and Confronting Whiteness, Privilege, and Oppression, 32(3), 919-937. DOI: 10.1111/jora.12775

Frey, W. R., Mann, N., Boling, A., Jordan, P., Lowe, K. N., & Witte, S. S. (2021). Uprooting (our) whiteness. Advances in Social Work, 21(2/3), 954鈥�977. DOI: 10.18060/24140

Frey, W. R., Patton, D. U., Gaskell, M. B., & McGregor, K. A. (2020). Artificial Intelligence and Inclusion: Formerly Gang-Involved Youth as Domain Experts for Analyzing Unstructured Twitter Data. Social Science Computer Review, 38(1), 42鈥�56. DOI: 10.1177/0894439318788314

Frey, W. R. (2020). Robin DiAngelo, White fragility: Why it鈥檚 so hard for white people to talk about racism. Journal of Social Work, 20(1), 123-125. DOI: 10.1177/1468017319868330

Frey, W. R. (2018). Humanizing Digital Mental Health through Social Media: Centering Experiences of Gang-Involved Youth Exposed to High Rates of Violence. Biomedical Informatics Insights. DOI: 10.1177/1178222618797076

Selected Grants

Principal Investigator, CSSW Doctoral Research Grant (2023-2024). Doing Race Online: Community Collaborative Studies on Social Media. School of Social Work, Columbia University, $1,500

Co-Principal Investigator, Anti-Racism Seed Grant (2020-2021, Co-PI: Dr. Susan S. Witte). Evaluation and Training to Expand the Space for Uprooting Whiteness. Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty Advancement, Columbia University, $10,000

Selected Appointments and Awards

2024, Excellence in Academic Advising Award. Advising Programs Office, Harvard College, Cambridge, MA

2019, Abstract of Distinction. Artificial Intelligence and Inclusion. Society for Prevention Research鈥檚 (SPR) 27th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA

2017, TED Resident. TED Conferences, New York, NY

Clinical Practice Experience

2009 - Present, Inter-/Intragroup Dialogic Facilitation

2012 - 2015, Youth Social Justice Facilitation Training

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