Leah Davina Junck, PhD, is an anthropological researcher specializing in qualitative research, technology, health, and AI governance, with a focus on understanding how people experience and respond to rapid technological change. She is a Senior Researcher at the Global Center on AI Governance, where she leads qualitative research on themes including education and health and contributes to policy development and community-building initiatives across the majority world. Her work draws on extensive ethnographic research, including studies of AI in healthcare in Mozambique, WhatsApp-based neighborhood surveillance, and the use of dating technologies in South Africa.

Leah previously held a postdoctoral fellowship at the Institute for Humanities in Africa at the University of Cape Town and has conducted health research at the Health Economics and HIV/AIDS Research Division at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. She has also worked as a research consultant and journalist and serves as co-editor of Anthropology Southern Africa. Her research brings anthropological perspectives into conversations about how AI can be developed, used, and governed in ways that are informed by care and by the experiences and priorities of African and other majority-world communities.