Eden Medina is Associate Professor of Science, Technology, and Society at MIT. Her research uses the history of science and technology as a way to understand processes of political change, especially in Latin America. She combines history, science and technology studies, and Latin American studies in her writings.

She is the author of Cybernetic Revolutionaries: Technology and Politics in Allende's Chile, which won the Edelstein Prize for outstanding book in the history of technology, the Computer History Museum Prize for outstanding book in the history of computing, and the Book Prize of the Recent History and Memory Section (honorable mention) of the Latin American Studies Association. Her co-edited volume Beyond Imported Magic: Essays on Science, Technology and Society in Latin America received the Amsterdamska Award from the European Society for the Study of Science and Technology. Her research has appeared in venues such as the Guardian, New York Times, Economist, and NPR, and on the popular podcast 99 Percent Invisible.

Medina's current research studies how nations use science and technology to address histories of dictatorship and state violence and how science and technology intertwine with processes of truth, justice, and repair. Early published work from this project received the 2019 Abbott Payson Usher Prize from the Society for the History of Technology for the best article or other work published by the society in the preceding three calendar years. More broadly her research studies the history of science and technology in Latin America and the ways that political projects shape, and are shaped by, new technological capabilities and forms of knowledge production that are deemed scientific.

Medina received her Ph.D. from MIT in the History and Social Study of Science and Technology. She holds a degree in Electrical Engineering from Princeton University and a Master of Studies in Law from Yale Law School. She has taught courses on social informatics, data and society, computer and information ethics, technology and the First Amendment, geographies of technology, and the history of technology. She is a 2020-2021 Radcliffe Institute Fellow, an affiliated fellow of the Information Society Project at Yale Law School, and member of the editoral board for Tapuya. Previous appointments include serving as a Fulbright Specialist in Engineering Education and directing the Rob Kling Center for Social Informatics at Indiana University. In addition to her books, she has published on topics as diverse as computer science education, the making of global corporate culture, technology and human rights, crisis communication and infrastructure during natural disasters, big data and algorithmic regulation, the history and social study of technology, and science and technology in Latin America.

Medina is Director of Graduate Studies for the MIT HASTS Doctoral Program, advisor for the Latin American and Latino/a Studies undergraduate major and concentration, and Associate Head of House of the MIT undergraduate residence East Campus.

Follow @edenmedina on X (Twitter).