Alumni
Graduate Students
Diana Freed – Diana’s research interests are broadly in the areas of human-computer interaction (HCI), social computing, and usable security and privacy. She uses computational and social science methods to develop new tools, technologies, and theories to detect and mitigate digital harms and inequities. Her research focuses on improving safety and wellbeing for underserved populations in the areas of gender-based violence, mHealth, technology policy, digital literacy, and youth and social media. Diana was awarded a post-doctoral fellowship at Harvard University for a joint appointment at the Center for Research on Computation and Society and Harvard Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society for 2023-24. Upon completion of her post-doc fellowship, she will start as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science and the Data Science Institute at Brown University in the Fall of 2024.
Aparajita Bhandari – Aparajita is interested in social networks and online community, online moderation, and tech for social impact. She seeks to understand how vulnerable people, particularly those experiencing homelessness, use social media technologies to build community and how these technologies can be better designed for these groups. She is also interested in how social media is used to bridge micro and macro level interactions, particularly in the contexts of civic engagement. Aparajita has accepted a position as as a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Department of English, Literature, and Digital Media at the University of Waterloo, Canada.
Amanda Purington – Mandy studies the intersection of family and digital communication. She is particularly interested in how communication technologies can positively impact the development, health, and wellbeing of young people. She examines the ways in which technology can improve communication between parents/guardians and their adolescent children, as well as how educational interventions for young people can promote prosocial digital citizenship in the world of social media. She uses a variety of methodological approaches, including observation, interviews, focus groups, and surveys. Mandy can be reached at ald17@cornell.edu. She is the Director of Evaluation and Research at ACT for Youth project in the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research. Advisor: Natalie Bazarova
Shruti Sannon – Shruti Sannon examines the privacy implications of emerging technologies, particularly for vulnerable and/or underserved populations. Her work aims to inform how technologies can be designed to be more inclusive, ethical, and privacy-protective for users with diverse needs and experiences. She employs a range of methods in her research, including interviews, experiments, surveys, and content analyses. Shruti has received a Computing Innovation Fellowship and is currently a postdoctoral researcher and Computing Innovation Fellow at the University of Michigan, School of Information. She previously was a post-doc at Drexel University in the College of Computing and Informatics. Shruti can be reached at ss3464@cornell.edu or found on Twitter @shsannon. Her website is at shrutisannon.com. Co-Advisors: Natalie Bazarova and Dan Cosley.
Kaylee Kruzan – Kaylee studies emotion regulation and anxiety mitigation in online and mediated contexts. She is primarily interested in how new communication technologies can be used to initiate or maintain positive behavior change, specifically in the areas of mental health and wellbeing. Kaylee has explored intervention models for culminating resilience in depressed populations and is currently involved in research examining the efficacy of VR-based interventions to help individuals regulate emotion arousal and triggering situations. Kaylee has accepted a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Northwestern University’s Center for Behavioral Intervention and Technologies, focusing on researching the intersection of mental health and HCI. She can be reached at kpk65@cornell.edu. Co-Advisors: Natalie Bazarova and Janis Whitlock.
Samuel Hardman Taylor – Sam studies how people connect and relate to one another over digital media, with specific interests in (1) personal relationships and technology and (2) cyberbullying. His research explains how people use mobile phones and social media for interpersonal communication as well as the psychological and social consequences of mediated interpersonal communication. Sam also studies interventions for reducing cyberbullying on social media. Sam has accepted an Assistant Professor position in the Department of Communication at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Follow Sam on Twitter at @samuelhardman. Advisor: Natalie Bazarova
Franccesca Kazerooni – Franccesca is primarily interested in researching intergroup dynamics and communication in on- and offline spaces. Additionally, Franccesca is interested in examining the ways in which marginalized individuals represent their identities on social media, and on creating designs to mitigate cyberbullying. She now works in User Research at Airbnb.
Bin Xu – Bin is primarily interested in bridging system designs and communication theories by exploring system affordances for various communication goals. Bin recently works on designing ephemerality for communication systems with an emphasis on understanding the effects of ephemeral materiality of media on users’ communication goals and processes. He is now a user experience research at Facebook. Bin’s website is: http://binxu.org
Pamara Chang – Pamara is interested in Health and Interpersonal Communication, both in FtF settings and CMC, with a special emphasis on perceptions of health-related disclosures and its effects. Her research interests include the effects of social media and the impact of social networks on health attitudes and behaviors. She is now an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at University of Cincinnati. Advisor: Natalie Bazarova.
Megan French – Megan completed her Master’s in Communication at Cornell and is interested in how social media and technology shape and reflect people’s sense of self and their relationships, with a focus on how people construct and convey their identity online. She completed her doctorate with Jeff Hancock at Stanford University, and she now works as a User Experience Researcher at Facebook.
David Markowitz – David‘s research interests include the psychology of language, deception, and computer-mediated communication. He graduated from Stanford University, and is now an Assistant Professor in the School of Journalism and Communication at the University of Oregon.
Erin Spottswood – Erin‘s research investigates how people pursue traditional communication goals via new communication technologies. She graduated in 2014 and is currently an Assistant Professor at Portland State University in the Department of Communication. Thesis title: Nudging privacy on social network sites: How contextual cues and surveillance primes affect disclosure behavior and privacy setting decisions. Advisor: Jeff Hancock.
Sunny Kim – Sunny graduated in 2013 and is currently a an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Behavior and Policy at Virginia Commonwealth University. Thesis title: Sleep is proven to improve your health – try this special pillow: An information processing approach to health advertorials. 2013. Advisor: Jeff Hancock.
Madeline Smith – Madeline was a member of the Lab between 2010 and 2012. She completed her doctoral dissertation with Jeremy Birnholtz at Northwestern University. She currently teaches INFO/CS 1300: Into to Web Design and Programming at Cornell University.
Lindsay Reynolds – Lindsay is now a User Experience Researcher at Facebook. Her dissertation investigates how the visual features of user interface designs can help make otherwise invisible actions visible, reducing ambiguity around group members’ roles. Advisor: Jeremy Birnholtz.
Jamie Guillory – Jamie‘s research focuses on how new forms of technology affect perceptions and behavior. Her most recent research focuses on using a novel mobile app to aid in smoking cessation for young adults. Jamie graduated in 2012 and is currently a Research Public Health Analyst at RTI. Thesis title: Social support, psychosocial resources and eating: Using social media to encourage healthy eating. 2012. Advisor: Jeff Hancock.
Crystal Jiang – Crystal‘s research focuses on psychological and relational processes in computer-mediated communication contexts. She is primarily interested in exploring how socio-emotional information is composed, exchanged and understood in cyberspace. After graduating in 2011, Crystal joined the Department of Media and Communication at the City University of Hong Kong as an Associate Professor. Thesis title: Absence makes the heart grow fonder: Behavioral adaptation and idealized perception in interpersonal media. 2011. Advisor: Jeff Hancock.
Amy Gonzales – Amy is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of California – Santa Barbara. Thesis title: The intensifying effect of computer-mediated communication on identity shift: Perceptions of audience size, acquaintanceship, and self-presentation certainty as indicators of self-concept change. 2010. Advisor: Jeff Hancock.
Catalina Toma – Catalina is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Arts at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. Her research examines how people understand and relate to one another when interacting via communication technologies. Thesis title: Affirming the self online: Motives, costs, and benefits. 2010. Advisor: Jeff Hancock.
Jorge Pena – Jorge is now an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of California, Davis. Thesis title: The puppet and the puppeteer: Priming in online contexts. 2007. Advisor: Jeff Hancock.
Zuoming Wang – Zuoming is now an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of North Texas. Thesis title: Social identification and interpersonal perception in computer-mediated communication: What you do versus who you are in virtual groups. 2007. Advisor: Jeff Hancock.
Postdoctoral Researchers
Ellen Zou – Dr. Ellen (Wenting Zou) was a postdoctoral Research Associate in the Social Media Lab. Her research focuses on how learning occurs in technology-mediated contexts (such as social media platforms, serious games, MOOCs, etc.) She worked on the evaluation, redesign, and analytics of the Social Media TestDrive platform. She is now an Assistant Professor at Penn State University.
Yoon Choi – Dr. Yoon Hyung Choi was a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Social Media Lab. Her research focuses on computer-mediated communication, with a focus on mediated social interactions, self-disclosure, and subjective well-being. She led the content development and project management of the Social Media TestDrive project.
Dominic DiFranzo – Dr. Dominic DiFranzo‘s research involves collaborating with colleagues across the social sciences and humanities to translate the tools and methods from data science, e-science and informatics to address their research needs and purposes. This includes working with a wide array of research groups and projects including large-scale social network analysis, experimental ethnography, open government data, and web observatories. He holds a PhD in Computer Science from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and was a member of the Tetherless World Constellation. Dominic has accepted an Assistant Professor position in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Lehigh University.
Philipp Masur – Dr. Philipp K. Masur was a visiting scholar in the Social Media Lab at Cornell University. His research focuses on different aspects of computer-mediated communication, online media use, and empirical research methods. Currently, he is investigating privacy perceptions and self-disclosure processes in different online environments. Philipp received his M.A. in Communication Studies from the Johannes Gutenberg-University in Mainz, Germany and his Ph.D. in Communication from the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart, Germany. Philipp is currently a postdoc at the Department of Communication at the Johaness Gutenberg University. Find his website here.
Faculty
Jeff Hancock – Jeff was a Co-Director of the Cornell Social Media Lab and a Professor in the Department of Communication and Department of Information Science until 2015, when he moved to Stanford University. He is interested in social interactions mediated by information and communication technology, with an emphasis on how people produce and understand language in these contexts.
Jeremy Birnholtz – Jeremy was a Cornell professor and Social Media Lab member from 2008 to 2012. He has since moved to Northwestern University, and started a new SML there. His research focuses on human-computer interaction issues, such as attention, information sharing, and collaboration through the use of technology.
Staff
Nisarg Patel – Nisarg worked as the Social Media Lab’s web developer and applications programmer. He joined the lab while finishing his Master of Science in Computer Science from Binghamton University. His interests include dynamic web technologies, cloud computing, machine learning, and data analytics. Nisarg will be working on technical development and maintenance of web applications for both the Social Media TestDrive and the Truman Platform.
Leslie Park – Leslie managed the lab’s research operations and worked on Social Media TestDrive’s strategic initiatives and research. She is interested in digital well-being, democratic design practices, and digital literacy to empower people to have agency over their experiences with technology. , She is now working as a UX Researcher for Google. Leslie can be reached on Twitter @LeslieJPark or via email at lp343@cornell.edu. Her website is http://leslie-park.com.
Amanda Wong – Amanda managed the administrative tasks of the Social Media Lab. She joined the lab in March 2021 after graduating from Cornell University with a Bachelor of Science in Policy Analysis and Management in December 2020.
Anna Spring – Anna worked as the Social Media Lab’s applications programmer. Anna joined the Department of Communication in July 2019 after earning a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science at the University at Buffalo. She worked on technical development and maintenance of Social Media TestDrive and technical development of the Truman Platform.
Undergraduate Researchers
2023
Lily Pan
Sushmi Majumder
Chiweta Osakwe
2023
Mika Labadan
Amber Arquilevech
Laila Dancy
2022
Andie Chapman
Cid Decatur
Amber Arquilevech
Zoe Gordon
Robin Ahn
Sherry Li
Deana Druz
2022
Tao Long
Onalee Duane
Ada Luo
Katie Gorton
Hank Lin
Ethan Siapno
Joanne Hu
2021
Parker Murphy
Martha Brandt
2021
Emily Dawson
Kingston Ko
2020
Tianke Zhao
Annika Pinch
Michael Huang
Kelly Stone
2020
Cathy Xie
Billie Sun
Lily Lin
Suzanne Lee
2019
Ashley Win
Colton Zuvich
Emmet Reilly
Stephanie Lim
2019
Megan Zhou
Ben Liu
Kevin Lam
Meredith Liu
2018
Amy Huang
Erin Chen
Jane Chen
Jannie Li
Shubham Barhate
John Kim
2018
Connor Murphy
Rashaad Ahmad
Charles Davis
Alex Rauter
Yanni Kaldis
2017
Alexis Vinzons
Brenna Garcia
Brianna DeJesus-Banos
Carina Crabbe
Carmen Chan
Cindy Xu
Cynthia Zhu
Dani Freedman
Elan Loeb
Emily Schemerhorn
2017
Erin O’Connor
Gaby Maurice
Giesha Nunez
Kasey Schnock
Katherine Tang
Molly Nagel
Nika Ablao
Richa Deshpande
Sierra Stone
Yutong Zhou
2016
Joon Lee
Danielle Boris
2016
Emma Nagel
2015
Jessica Sion
Elizabeth Sowers
Shelby Rokito
Jessica Roth
Josh Shapiro
Michael Luzmore
Rebecca Suss
2015
Ruth Weissman
Sarah Sinclair
Billy Elliot
Jevan Hutson
Jordan Jackson
Tyler Alicea
Zoe Forster
2014
Sarah Orwig
Jennifer Call
Sean McNeil
Gabrielle Stadlen
2014
Elani Cohen
Danila Medvedev
Myra Nizami
Christine Kline
2013
Arya Viswanathan
Brian O’Connor
Kyle Kessler
Linna Li
Meredith Weiss
Shelby Park
Sophia Sun
Tia Lewis
Ariel Schwartz
Adam Schlussel
Carolyn Sussman
Chris Traver
Kristina Jackson
Jana Wilbricht
2013
Victor Hom
Victoria Cecilio
Sumin Kim
Irina Dubinskaya
Jennifer Li
Ben Weyhrauch
Casey Randazzo
Diana Wu
Ngo Chin
Aline Schechter
Eteng Ettah
Daniel Cohanpour
Riley Taiji
Cameron Meade
2012
Erica Hungerford
Daniel Filous
Elizabeth Calvert
2012
Jared Kass
Rachel Ellicott
Janice Park
2011
Margaret Drislane
Jennifer Herlihy
Jill Mendelsohn
David Rollins
2011
Jessie Taft
Rachel Blady
Trisha Nussbaum
2023
Lily Pan
Sushmi Majumder
Chiweta Osakwe
Mika Labadan
Amber Arquilevech
Laila Dancy
2022
Andie Chapman
Cid Decatur
Amber Arquilevech
Zoe Gordon
Robin Ahn
Sherry Li
Tao Long
Onalee Duane
Ada Luo
Katie Gorton
Hank Lin
Sherry Li
Deana Druz
Ethan Siapno
Joanne Hu
2021
Parker Murphy
Martha Brandt
Emily Dawson
Kingston Ko
2020
Tianke Zhao
Annika Pinch
Michael Huang
Kelly Stone
Cathy Xie
Billie Sun
Lily Lin
Suzanne Lee
2019
Ashley Win
Colton Zuvich
Emmet Reilly
Stephanie Lim
Megan Zhou
Ben Liu
Kevin Lam
Meredith Liu
2018
Amy Huang
Erin Chen
Jane Chen
Jannie Li
Shubham Barhate
John Kim
Connor Murphy
Rashaad Ahmad
Charles Davis
Alex Rauter
Yanni Kaldis
2017
Alexis Vinzons
Brenna Garcia
Brianna DeJesus-Banos
Carina Crabbe
Carmen Chan
Cindy Xu
Cynthia Zhu
Dani Freedman
Elan Loeb
Emily Schemerhorn
Erin O’Connor
Gaby Maurice
Giesha Nunez
Kasey Schnock
Katherine Tang
Molly Nagel
Nika Ablao
Richa Deshpande
Sierra Stone
Yutong Zhou
2016
Joon Lee
Danielle Boris
Emma Nagel
2015
Jessica Sion
Elizabeth Sowers
Shelby Rokito
Jessica Roth
Josh Shapiro
Michael Luzmore
Rebecca Suss
Ruth Weissman
Sarah Sinclair
Billy Elliot
Jevan Hutson
Jordan Jackson
Tyler Alicea
Zoe Forster
2014
Sarah Orwig
Jennifer Call
Sean McNeil
Gabrielle Stadlen
Elani Cohen
Danila Medvedev
Myra Nizami
Christine Kline
2013
Arya Viswanathan
Brian O’Connor
Kyle Kessler
Linna Li
Meredith Weiss
Shelby Park
Sophia Sun
Tia Lewis
Ariel Schwartz
Adam Schlussel
Carolyn Sussman
Chris Traver
Kristina Jackson
Jana Wilbricht
Victor Hom
Victoria Cecilio
Sumin Kim
Irina Dubinskaya
Jennifer Li
Ben Weyhrauch
Casey Randazzo
Diana Wu
Ngo Chin
Aline Schechter
Eteng Ettah
Daniel Cohanpour
Riley Taiji
Cameron Meade
2012
Erica Hungerford
Daniel Filous
Elizabeth Calvert
Jared Kass
Rachel Ellicott
Janice Park
2011
Margaret Drislane
Jennifer Herlihy
Jill Mendelsohn
David Rollins
Jessie Taft
Rachel Blady
Trisha Nussbaum