Research Affiliates
Our team of research affiliates includes faculty and graduate students from multiple universities and disciplines.
Brian Ekdale, Director
Brian studies global digital cultures. Specifically, his research examines how digital and social media shape and are shaped by cultural production practices around the world.
Katy Biddle
Katy's research interests are digital cultures and pop culture. She studies how social media users engage with social issues online.
Sarmad Chandio
Sarmad uses computational social science techniques to study how social media interactions shape user opinions.
Hussam Habib
Hussam is interested in studying how social media platforms and their algorithms influence user behavior and shape beliefs.
Tim Havens
Tim's research interests include television studies, media globalization, race and media, and critical media industry studies. His most recent book is Media Industries in the Digital Age, co-authored with Amanda D. Lotz.
Andrew High
Andy maintains two complementary and intersecting lines of research on interpersonal communication focused specifically on supportive communication and computer-mediated communication.
Manisha Keim
Manisha's research focuses on the areas of social computing, security and privacy.
Volha Kananovich
Volha's research specialties include journalism studies, political communication, computational social studies and international communication.
Sang Jung Kim
Sang studies the interaction between technology, politics, and social identity, with particular attention to the mediating role of social media platforms and the spread of information to the public.
Raven Maragh-Lloyd
Raven's research focuses on Black digital media practices and their connections to power, resistance and longstanding efforts of community building and preservation.
Rishab Nithyanand
Rishab’s research is broadly in the areas of privacy and social computing. His work is focused on fostering transparency and accountability in the online data ecosystem through a rigorous examination of the algorithms and processes used by ad-tech and social media platforms.
Javie Ssozi
Javie’s research focuses on the interaction of politics, participation, and power within contemporary media. His three primary research interests are platform regulation, mis- and disinformation, and contentious politics.
Ryan Stoldt
Ryan's teaching and research interests focus on the intersections of data, algorithms, and culture. He primarily teaches courses in media studies, advertising, and digital media production.
Alexander Tawiah
Alexander’s research interests focus on the intersections of emerging technologies, journalistic practice, and political communication, with particular attention to how digital platforms influence the democratization of information and cultural production within marginalized communities.
Nhung Vu
Nhung studies interpersonal communication, particularly supportive communication and affect.
Bingbing Zhang
Bingbing’s current research areas include media effects, political communication, health, and science communication. The primary goal of her research is to explore how strategic media messages bolster healthy social practices.