I’m a researcher and editor interested in critical data studies, information seeking, and risk communication.
Cover Art: Nasreen Mohammedi, Untitled, 1960
About Me
I’m a doctoral candidate in information and library science at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and a design thinking fellow with Innovate Carolina, UNC’s hub for innovation and entrepreneurship.
In my research, I use a critical data studies perspective to study how data mining and visualization inform audience risk perception and information seeking processes.
My dissertation examines how people find information about the impacts of climate-finance and ESGs on their personal lives, relative to their (dis)belief in climate change and their understanding of the impacts of climate change.
My background is in journalism: I previously led projects studying media ecosystems and networks as a researcher/community manager at the MIT Center for Civic Media. I’ve worked on digital investigations at the Harvard Kennedy School and trained journalists on best practices for reporting on mis/disinformation. I received my master’s degree from MIT’s Comparative Media Studies program, where I studied audience engagement on social media during disease outbreaks. Before that, I worked on digital projects at The Associated Press.
Skills
Project Management
Digital Strategy
Editing
Audience Engagement
Mis/Disinformation Reporting
OSINT
Design Research
Computational Social Science
Critical Data Studies
Risk Communication
Data Mining and Visualization
Selected Projects
Media Cloud is an open source platform for media analysis, using a crawling hyperlink structure to study media ecosystems on the open web.
Targeting Greta Thunberg: A Case Study in Mis/Disinformation
In this report from the German Marshall Fund and Media Cloud, we examine misinformation and disinformation related to the climate-change activist Greta Thunberg, who was smeared by a number of conspiracy theories.
Swiped: How Dating Apps Harm Marginalized Communities
This report, through the Data Culture Group at Northeastern, investigates the potential harms marginalized communities may face when using dating apps.
A Moment of Change: Challenges and Opportunities When Covering Hate Speech and Mis/Disinformation
Since the 2016 U.S. presidential election, news coverage of hate speech and mis/disinformation has skyrocketed. To better understand the challenges and changes associated with this inflection point, we conducted 10 in-depth interviews with prominent journalists covering this beat. These interviews underscore critical debates in the field about platform accountability, the news agenda and news organizations’ infrastructure and support systems.
Libremente is an SMS-based program designed to provide survivors of natural disasters with mental health exercises, resources and tools. To date we have tested our program in communities in Peru and Puerto Rico.
When to Start Freaking Out: Audience Engagement During Disease Outbreaks
My MIT Master’s research examined U.S.-based audience engagement on social media during disease outbreaks, situating audience risk perception against the Ebola and Zika outbreaks to study news sensationalism, social media business practices, and risk communications.
AP Books
While working on digital projects at The Associated Press, I help launch the AP Books product vertical, curating content and providing editorial strategy for AP Books including “Life and Death in ISIS,” and “My Time with the Kings.”