Rui Hou
Rui Hou is Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at Saint Mary鈥檚 University (SMU). Prior to joining SMU, he worked as postdoctoral scholar at 91滴滴 (2022-2025) and University of Toronto (2020-2022). He holds a PhD in sociology from Queen鈥檚 Univeristy. Empirically, Rui works in two domains: (1) A primary research stream focuses on how technological innovation shapes the exercise of authoritarian power and how individuals experience and respond to the growing digitalization of control; (2) Beyond purely theoretical critiques, a second research direction focuses on community-based interdisciplinary collaboration, aiming to address the challenges that innovations in social media technology and artificial intelligence pose to the well-being of marginalized and racialized communities.