I am the Associate Dean for Research for the College of Arts, Media and Design, Professor of Communication Studies, and Director of the Network Science PhD program at Northeastern University. I am fascinated by how communication technology shapes, changes, and transforms our relationships with power. From small groups to whole societies, I use computational and mixed-methods to understand how everyday people can use communication technology to create a more just, equitable, and inclusive world. I love to collaborate in interdisciplinary teams and I have co-authored with colleagues from many different disciplines, including computer science, psychology, sociology, political science, digital humanities, design, and public health. I earned my  Ph.D. in Media, Technology and Society from Northwestern University, and M.S. and B.S. degrees in Communication from Cornell University.

In addition to research, I love advising and mentoring. I won my college and university’s Excellence in Teaching awards in 2017, I co-founded Women in Network Science (WiNS), and I am fortunate to work with a team of brilliant junior researchers in the CoMM Lab

I am a Ph.D. Student at the Network Science Institute entering my second year. I received my Bachelor’s degree in Physics and Philosophy from Northeastern University in December 2020, where I took my first Network Science course in 2018. During this time, I focused my attention broadly on dynamical processes on complex social networks and social constructivism. Before my Ph.D I spent a time as a consultant in the insurance industry and spent a year at the Center for Social Media Responsibility at the University of Michigan’s School of Information as a full-time researcher studying computational sociolinguistics, moderation systems, and misinformation.

My work now is broadly on developing novel methods to measure, detect, and analytically represent communication processes in the world. Simple diffusion models that have been utilized for years neglect crucial information about the messages we send, the channels we send them through, and the rich knowledge gained from an analysis of the power structures underlying every communication process. Research in this area is ongoing and is very interdisciplinary, but updates can be found on my Google Scholar and website.

Outside of research, I’m a DJ and co-founder of FDEC Records as well as an avid-but-only-just-starting road cyclist. I’m so grateful to have an advisor that creates such an open, diverse, and fun space to research. Brooke has been my #1 advocate and mentor for the last 5 years and I couldn’t be any happier :)

I am a fourth-year student in the Network Science Ph.D. program at Northeastern. I earned my undergraduate degree in computer science and critical social theory at Wesleyan University. With full appreciation for the harms wrought by the internet, my research focuses on the ways in which it gives voice, visibility, and access to marginalized groups, and in turn, helps shift dominant cultural attitudes and narratives. I mix network science tools with qualitative methods to explore how youth in particular leverage social media for political participation and social change. I’ve led a project about the way keyword-based data collection obscures young users’ participation in online political discourse, which received a top student paper award in the Political Communication Division at the 72nd Annual International Communication Association conference. I’ve also led work on how young people remix activist content on TikTok, and am currently analyzing how youth activists exploit online affordances to reconfigure power in movement building. Some things that I love outside of research include word games, puzzles, Set, and glitter.

I am a fourth year PhD student working with Dr. Brooke Foucault Welles. My interests are online hate speech and leadership in teams.

I am currently leading a project on how community based interventions can be used to mitigate the harm of hate speech. I am utilizing a mixed methods approach using both qualitative interviewing and quantitative data analysis of online hate speech.

I am also working on a collaboration with igraph and Women in Network Science to study how leadership structures impact longevity and diversity.

Before coming to Northeastern I received a Bachelors in Psychology and a minor in Art from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Most recently, I received an NULab Seedling grant and became a CITAP affiliate. In my spare time I enjoy sewing, rock climbing and playing board games.

Alyssa is a third year PhD student working with Brooke Foucault Welles and David Lazer. Before coming to Northeastern, she worked as a data engineer & data scientist; before that, she studied Comparative Media Studies and Computer Science at MIT. She is interested in community-building in online spaces, the spread of attention online, and natural language processing. As of 2023, Alyssa is a National Science Foundation GRFP award recipient. 

Alyssa is currently studying attention brokers, third parties that contribute to the creation of a new following relationship through their amplification, as well as Twitter attention niches. She is also conducting a retrospective autoethnography of university bureaucracies and social media as a result of fallout from this research. In addition, she is studying Twitter data related to the#FreeBritney movement, and was published in 2021 for her paper "OpenFraming: Open-sourced Tool for Computational Framing Analysis of Multilingual Data." In her work with the Lazer Lab, Alyssa is building an open-source aggregate data tool to make some of the Twitter data the lab has more widely available. 

Her favorite part of working with this team is their emphasis on work/life balance and overall commitment to take care of one another's well-being. In her free time, she powerlifts, bakes, embroiders, and hangs out with her dog, Eliza. During long seminars, you might catch her knitting!

I am a second-year Ph.D. student working with Dr. Brooke Foucault Welles. My general research interests lie in online communication, computational social science, and race and technology. More specifically, I study the collective and communicative practices on social media and how these acts uphold or challenge the dominant narratives, power hierarchies, and hegemonic ideologies, with a specific focus on race and ethnicity. My most recent projects include the investigation of DNA test results discussions online, subversive humor and neologism creation in an Asian online community, and the self-disclosure of experiences of racism online.

I earned my Master's degree in Information Science at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Before joining the lab, I was a data scientist at the Center for Antiracist Research at Boston University, where I was the primary contributor to the Racial Data Tracker project. In my free time, I am an avid concert-goer, vinyl collector, home cook/baker, and tarot card reader. You can learn more about me on my personal website.

I am a second year PhD student in Interdisciplinary Design and Media working with Dr. Brooke Foucault Welles and Dr. Nabeel Gillani. I am interested in combining data visualization, systems design, and communication technologies to explore tools supporting more transparent, intelligent, efficient, and equitable outcomes in policy. I have previously worked as a data scientist, cognitive science researcher, technology startup founder, analytics product manager, local government activist and political candidate, and data visualization designer in the civic technology space.

I received a bachelor's in computer science and cognitive science from Wellesley College and an MS in information design and data visualization from Northeastern University. I also have a graduate certificate in data, economics, and development policy from MITx.

Through theory and practice, I am excited to explore enriching our toolset for collective decision making, re-examining the balance of influence in policy, and impacting how information flows through systems and communities.

I am a second-year Ph.D. student in Northeastern's Khoury College of Computer Science. Broadly, my interests focus on the ways in which marginalized people form diffuse or federated communities on social media, and how those communities respond to internal and external conflicts which threaten their integrity. I'm currently analyzing data related to Enbridge's Line 3 and the #StopLine3 movement to understand how activist groups' uses of media differ between platforms and cases.

Prior to arriving at Northeastern, I received a B.S. in computer science and mathematics at the University of Maryland, College Park. During my undergrad, I participated in an REU at Rutgers University where I devised new techniques for dual-sensor porosity detection in 3D laser metal deposition printing. I also worked at the American Mathematical Society's Washington, D.C. office, where I helped connect career mathematicians with U.S. Congresspeople to facilitate government-supported basic research. I then received an M.S. in theoretical computer science at the University of Maryland, College Park, during which I studied approximation techniques for the set cover problem and how they were improved using probabilistically-checkable proof techniques.

I am a second year PhD student in the Network Science program, working with Prof. Brooke Foucault Welles and Dr. Samuel Scarpino. I received my Bachelor’s degree in Physics and have a background in studying complex communication processes across sociobiological systems. I’ve previously worked on contagion models of opinion spreading on online social networks and call-response dynamics in foraging meerkats.

My current research interests and projects lie at the intersection of political communication, critical media studies, text analysis and public health. Broadly speaking, I devise mixed method approaches to measure and detect frames in mass communication, with an emphasis on studying framing that affects public attitudes towards queer health issues. Insofar as these methods capture interesting constructs in media discourses, I inquire about the generative mechanisms and drivers of the discourse dynamics. In my current project, I am investigating politicization in the news media coverage about the Mpox outbreak of 2022 in the U.S.

While most of my training has been positivist in its philosophy, I’ve recently come to also appreciate interpretivist and critical approaches in doing science, and have been integrating the same in my work. Outside of work, I love cooking elaborate meals, playing board games and listening to RnB/jazz. I’m always up for a conversation and love nerding out.