I am an Assistant Professor at Augsburg University and a Faculty Fellow for the Sabo Center for Democracy and Citizenship. I am an Affiliate Researcher at the Participatory AI Research, Education, and Development (PAIRED) Lab.
My work lives at the intersection of community informatics, youth and social work, and popular education. I study the political economy of data: how data collection, AI, and proprietary infrastructures reshape human service organizations and the lives of young people. I also work toward alternatives — community-controlled data practices, data cooperatives, and frameworks that center justice over efficiency.
I believe learning should be co-created, that classrooms should embody the worlds we hope to build, and that technology should serve people (not machine-ify them).
Recent Work
Fink, A. & Zobitz, J. ARNOVA Annual Conference, Philadelphia, PA
VeLure Roholt, R. & Fink, A. Critical Youth Work, Weimar, Germany
Fink, A. & VeLure Roholt, R. Critical Youth Work, Weimar, Germany
Fink, A., Nienow, M., & Brito, M. European Conference on Social Work Research, Aberdeen, UK
Augsburg University
National Association of Social Workers – MN Chapter
Co-PI with John Zobitz National Science Foundation, $220,956
Fink, A. & Goldkind, L. Economic Anthropology, 12(2)
Nienow, M., Apgar, D., Fink, A., & Quinonez, J. Advances in Social Work, 25(2)
Goldkind, L., Ming, J., & Fink, A. Human Service Organizations: Management, Leadership & Governance
Fink, A. Internet Policy Review, 13(2)
Fink, A., Habtamu, B., Kunkel-Linares, A., Pence, M., Woller, K., & Alexander, I. Disrupting Hierarchy in Education, Teachers College Press
Fink, A. & VeLure Roholt, R. Social Service Review, 96(4)