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Doctoral Students

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Daniel Akselrad

Daniel Akselrad

daniel.akselrad@stanford.edu
CV

Akselrad uses historical and ethnographic methods to examine how media affect the sensemaking of individuals inside expansive bureaucratic institutions, information systems, and military infrastructures.

Sanna Ali

Sanna Ali

sannaali@stanford.edu 
CV

Ali is interested in politics of platforms and the civic good – specifically, she studies privatization of digitally-supported infrastructure and its implications on inequalities of access and distribution.

Ruth Appel

Ruth Appel

rappel@stanford.edu 
CV

Appel is interested in the intersection of Behavioral Science and Computer Science, with the aim of leveraging psychological targeting ethically and for the common good.

Rachel Bergmann

Rachel Bergmann

rachberg@stanford.edu
CV

Bergmann uses interpretive and archival methods to deeply and critically contextualize contemporary information technologies. Her research interests include histories of computing, feminist science and technology studies, and the cultural politics of AI and algorithmic systems.

Caitlin Burke

Caitlin Burke

ccburke@stanford.edu

Burke is interested in user experience design, design ethics, and human-computer interaction.

Catherine Chen

Catherine Chen

tche101@stanford.edu
CV

Chen is interested in political psychology, especially the role of ideology and partisanship in decision making.

Yikun Chi

Yikun Chi

yikunchi@stanford.edu

Chi is interested in leveraging media consumption and mobile sensing data and deep learning for the detection and prediction of mental well-being related issues.

Ross Dahlke

Ross Dahlke

rdahlke@stanford.edu 
CV

Dahlke researches the connection between online and offline civic life, particularly participation in political collective action such as social media use and political donations. 

Matthew DeButts

Matthew DeButts

mdebutts@stanford.edu

Matt is interested in how institutions get people to believe things, especially in China and the United States (media, politics, beliefs).

Cid Decatur

Cid Decatur

cdecatur@stanford.edu
CV

Decatur focuses on the cognitive impacts of social media, social networks, language, and jargon online.

Cyan DeVeaux

Cyan DeVeaux

cyanjd@stanford.edu 
CV

DeVeaux is interested in augmented and virtual reality, human-computer interaction, and human-centered design.

Anna Gibson

Anna Gibson

agibson2@stanford.edu
CV

Gibson is interested in how labor, especially civic labor, is practiced through digital platforms. Her interdisciplinary approach is informed theoretically by the sociology of labor, organizational studies, and STS. Gibson’s doctoral research focuses on the strategies that content moderators use to make sense of their work in light of competing industrial logics.

Tomás Guarna

Tomás Guarda

tguarna@stanford.edu
CV

Guarna is interested in the new meanings of citizenship, trust, and legitimacy in the digital public sphere. 

Eugy Han

Eugy Han

eugyoung@stanford.edu
CV

Han is interested in understanding how virtual reality environments and the embodiment of digital identities transform cognitive processes.

Young Jee Kim

Young Jee Kim

kimyj@stanford.edu
CV

Kim studies democratic processes for risk prevention in society through deliberative practices.

Angela Lee

Angela Lee

angela8@stanford.edu
CV

Lee is interested in understanding the impact of media and technology on users’ health and well-being by studying psychological processes such as mindsets, particularly in the context of adolescent and parent-child relationships.

Yingdan Lu

Yingdan Lu

yingdan@stanford.edu
CV
website

Lu’s research focuses on digital media, political communication, global communication, and Chinese politics. She uses large-scale digital data and cutting-edge computational methods like computer vision, along with qualitative methods such as ethnography into the advancement of social scientific theory and analysis. Lu is currently on the academic job market for a faculty position starting 2023.

Marijn Mado

Marijn Mado

mnmado@stanford.edu
CV

Mado studies media literacy education. She uses ethnographic methods to explore the practices and epistemological assumptions that underlie the design and teaching of media literacy programs.

Ryan Moore

Ryan Moore

rymoore@stanford.edu
CV

Moore is interested in older adults’ digital media use. 

Natalie Neufeld

nneufeld@stanford.edu
CV

Neufeld is interested in political polarization, party loyalty, and persuasion techniques that lead to lasting attitude change.

Michelle Ng

Michelle Ng

michelleng@stanford.edu 
CV

Ng is interested in how media can be leveraged by community-based organizations to advocate for more equitable natural resource management.

Rinseo Park

Rinseo Park

rinseo@stanford.edu
CV

Park is interested in understanding how individual decision-making diverges from policy actors’ (e.g., political elites or scientific experts) views and the underlying cognitive processes.

Katherine Roehrick

kroehr@stanford.edu 
CV

Roehrick uses computational and linguistic analyses to study human-computer interaction and digital media. She is a Stanford Graduate Fellow.

Reagan Ross

Reagan Ross

CV

Reagan is interested in the intersections of race, gender, and new media and technology. She is also interested in understanding how new technology might be used to disrupt anti-Black racism.

Serena Soh

Serena Soh

sjsoh@stanford.edu
CV

Soh is interested in understanding the relationships between digital media use and well-being, specifically in the context of delivering personalized behavior change interventions through smartphones.

Sumer Vaid

Sumer Vaid

sumer@stanford.edu
CV

Vaid’s research explores how digital media technologies can be used to study and alter psychological processes and outcomes. He is especially interested in a person-specific, computational and idiographic approach that examines the extent to which individual differ from each other in their response to different kinds of media. 

Morgan Weiland

mweiland@stanford.edu
CV
morganweiland.com

Morgan N. Weiland is the Executive Director of the Constitutional Law Center at Stanford Law School, where she received her JD in 2015. She is in the process of completing the first joint degree program between SLS and Stanford’s Communication Department, where she is a PhD candidate. Her dissertation investigates the structural role of speech platforms like Facebook and Twitter in the public sphere to understand what responsibilities these companies have to the public, and what policies ought to be enacted to ensure both free expression and accountability.

Weiland was a Lecturer in Law at SLS during the 2017-18 academic year, when she developed and taught a new course about platforms, law, and ethics with Professor Barbara van Schewick. She is also a Graduate Fellow at SLS’s Center for Internet & Society. She clerked for the Honorable M. Margaret McKeown on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals during the 2018-19 term. She is admitted to the California Bar.