I joined the Illinois Institute of Technology as an Assistant Professor in 2010. You can find out more about my work at IIT on my lab website. Before joining IIT, I was a Visiting Assistant Professor at Arizona State’s School of Public Affairs and a Research Fellow at the University of Michigan School of Information. My PhD is also from the University of Michigan School of Information.
Much of my recent work has focused on the use of Twitter by politicians and citizens talking to/about politicians. My goals here are to understand how politicians represent issues online without relying on traditional news media and how their online behavior might impact civic engagement. Some of the key research questions include: Do politicians frame issues differently in direct exchanges than through highly formalized press releases submitted to the traditional media? Do they use Twitter for dialogue or just another monologue? From the public’s side, I analyze the roles that social media play in moving policy issues onto the public agenda and how engaging with one’s representatives via social media impacts civic engagement.
I’m a multi-methods researcher, and I teach courses on user research, social media, organizational communication, social network analysis and qualitative methods. You can read more about my work in posts tagged “research” and on the Research page. My lab – the Collaboration and Social Media Lab @ IIT – has more info as well.
When I’m not working on research or teaching, I’m probably cooking or watching Michigan Football (Go Blue!). I’m also available for consulting on social media development and user research projects and was a founding member of the Social Media Research Foundation.