About Xiangyu

Ma Xiangyu is an assistant professor in sociology at Nanyang Technological University. He writes about the objective measure of subjectivities. His current research projects assess the usefulness of silicon sampling in studies of cultural taste; he also studies the social construction of authenticity under generative AI regimes. Lately, he has also been working with large-language models a fair bit, in particular working on problems related to the algorithmic fidelity of synthetic estimates derived from so-called “silicon samples.” Some of his recent published work examined the way hip-hop artists’ deaths function as costly signals of authenticity, durably inflating audience valuations of their antemorterm work. His writings have been published in outlets such as Socius, Poetics, and Cultural Sociology. He graduated with a PhD in sociology from the University of Chicago, and a BA in sociology from Pomona College.

A copy of his most recent CV can be found here.