William R. Frey
Assistant Professor, School of Social Work
Preferred: william.frey@sjsu.edu
Office Hours
Wednesdays, 1:30 - 2:30 p.m. PT, or by appointment
Education
- Ph.D., School of Social Work, Columbia University, 2025
- M.S.W., Community Organization, School of Social Work, University of Michigan, 2014
- B.A., Psychology, University of Michigan, 2011
Bio
William is an Assistant Professor in the School of Social Work. His scholarship involves a few areas: the digital lives of young people; community-collaborative digital research; critical "artificial intelligence" studies; race, racism, and whiteness; and dialogic pedagogy. Most of his research sits at the intersection of humanity and technology, aiming to complicate understandings of digital platforms and "artificial intelligence". William's work aims to create connective tissue between research (conceptual, theoretical, and empirical) and spaces of practice and everyday life.
Trained in inter-/intragroup dialogic pedagogy as a teenager at the Program on Intergroup Relations at the University of Michigan, William's work is informed by over 16 years of facilitating difficult conversations ranging from 1-hour workshops to three year dialogic communities. He also co-organizes the Critical Race and Intersectional Technology (CRIT) Collective with Dr. Kishonna L. Gray—an intergenerational, creative, and intellectual community of care. William’s research can be found in Social Media + Society, Journal of Research on Adolescence, Affilia: Feminist Inquiry in Social Work, Social Science Computer Review, Advances in Social Work, Data & Society, and elsewhere.
William co-pawrents a wonderful Italian Greyhound pup named Karl Marx with his wife, Kemeyawi—who is a postdoctoral fellow at Washington University in St. Louis. In his free time, he is an amateur sneakerhead who loves reading, coffee, spicy food, long walks (usually with a weighted vest and Karl), and laughing with his chosen family—with whom he meets for 6 hours every Thursday night.