Over the summer, Research Data & Digital Scholarship was fortunate to hire a new developer position to help with the support of research that makes use of AI tools and methodologies (broadly-defined). The new developer, Christopher D. Jimenez, PhD joined us in this position on July 6th, 2026, and has been busy learning all about Penn, the Libraries, and our team in preparation for the new academic year. To get to know Chris a bit better, we asked him to respond to a few questions about his background, hopes, and goals. Feel free to reach out to Chris or other members of RDDS!
What will be your primary focus in your new role?
AI, top to bottom. Beyond helping RDDS provide technical support for those looking to integrate AI into their work and research, I hope to participate in and help facilitate critical discussions of AI around Penn’s campus. It’d be great to help folks connect the dots between their usage of AI and its wider ramifications: political, economic, legal, cultural, environmental, etc. My RDDS colleague Jajwalya Karajgikar smartly describes these as the "socio-technical" aspects of AI, and I believe that productively leveraging AI in a technical sense goes hand in hand with deeply interrogating its social impacts. So, I hope to draw a throughline between those end-to-end.
Can you share a bit about your previous experience before joining our library? Tell us about your academic background and interests
I have a Ph.D. in English from Penn, and I’m a semester away from finishing an M.S. in Computer Science with a specialization in Artificial Intelligence from the Georgia Institute of Technology. I’ve previously worked as: a pizza delivery driver; a clerk at the U.S. Postal Office; a graphic designer; an assistant director of communications; and, most recently, an associate professor of global literature and culture. I came to work on AI because my academic research focuses on the discourse of global catastrophe, and, well—here we are. The existential threat of AI abounds. Ultimately, I’d like to prevent worldly annihilation (wouldn't we all), which is why I left a tenured professorship to directly engage with and intervene in the field of AI.
What are you most excited about in your new role?
The people. First, all of the folks at RDDS are wonderful, as is every person I’ve met so far at Penn Libraries, so that makes working here a joy. Beyond these, Penn’s wider scholarly community seems limitless in its supply of passionate and deliberate thinkers. On the ground, I’m also a lover of typography, design, and all things involving the materiality of text(s). So, getting involved in the Handwritten Text Recognition project through SIMS as well as the Workshop in the History of Material Texts are at the top of my list.
What have you been surprised by at Penn or Philadelphia?
I lived in Philly for 6 years during grad school, and now that I’m back almost a decade later, I continue to be surprised by how small and large the city feels at the same time. I’ve been all over the world, but Philly's density of offerings in such a compact and multivariegated geography is a real solace. I feel lucky to be back, and while I’m not surprised to feel this way, I am still routinely surprised by how much the city offers.
What do you enjoy doing in your free time?
My wife Caitlin and I live together with our four dogs: Bee, Dobbi, Damian, and Trouble (a ferocious corgi). We walk them up and down the hills of Manayunk on the daily, and on the weekends, we go to farmer’s markets and love to explore Philly’s green spaces and museums. We also enjoy community events and sports and gaming culture; if any board game group needs new players, please feel free to reach out. Individually, I like to study chess puzzles, play classical music (viola), and am an avid reader of sci-fi and 20th-century literary fiction.
