Rutgers NetSCI Lab Speaker Series

2023

Digital Epidemiology Meets Network Science: A Computational Analytic Framework for Studying the Social Contexts of Sexual and Gender Minority Health | Lindsay E. Young, PhD

04/21/2023, 12pm-1pm EST

Lindsay Young, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of health communication and communication networks at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at USC. Her research leverages social network and digital epidemiology approaches to investigate sexual and gender minority health and well-being in the context of their digital networks. In her work, Lindsay draws on a computational toolkit that includes stochastic network modeling, automated textual analysis, and predictive modeling, which she pairs with a community-centered research orientation. Her research is supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Networks of Informative Fiction? Can There Be Some Truth in Misinformation, and Why This Matters for Network Research | Drew Margolin, PhD

01/27/2023, 12pm-1pm EST

Dr. Drew Margolin is Associate Professor in the Department of Communication at Cornell University. His research uses computational methods, typically combining social network analysis with text analysis techniques, to do theoretical investigations of real-world communication behaviour. His recent topics of interest include understanding and resisting misinformation as well as hidden sources of inequality in the online world. He is particularly interested in learning how to build productive conversations where authority and skepticism are both respected

2022

#HashtagActivism: Networks of Race and Gender Justice | Brooke Foucault-Welles

10/21/2022, 11:30am-12:30pm EST

Brooke Foucault Welles is the Associate Dean for Research in the College of Arts, Media, and Design and Director of the Network Science PhD Program at Northeastern University. Combining the methods of network science with theories from the social sciences, Welles studies power and amplification in online communication networks, with particular emphasis on how these networks mitigate and exacerbate marginalization. Her work is interdisciplinary and collaborative, with co-authors from computer science, political science, digital humanities, design, and public health. She is the co-author of #HashtagActivism: Networks of Race and Gender Justice and co-editor of the Oxford Handbook of Networked Communication.
For details: camd.northeastern.edu/faculty/brooke-foucault-welles/

Network models of and for behavior change | Thomas W. Valente, PhD

09/30/2022, 1pm-2pm EST

Dr. Valente is the author of Social Networks and Health: Models, Methods, and Applications (2010, Oxford University Press); Evaluating Health Promotion Programs (2002, Oxford University Press); Network Models of the Diffusion of Innovations (1995, Hampton Press); and over 235 articles and chapters on social networks, behavior change, and program evaluation. Valente is currently working on specifications for analyzing network models of diffusion and contagion with the R package NetdiffuseR. He is also well-known for his work developing network models of program implementation and network interventions. Valente has received numerous university, national, and international awards. Valente earned his BS in Mathematics from the University of Mary Washington, his MS in Mass Communication from San Diego State University, and his PhD from the Annenberg School for Communication at USC. From 1991 to 2000 he was at the Bloomberg School of Public Health; in 2008, he was a visiting senior scientist at NIH (NHGRI) for 6 months; and in 2010-2011 he was a visiting Professor at the École des Haute Études en Santé Publique (Paris/Rennes). Valente is co-editor (with Martin Everett) of Social Networks.

Complex Systems and Health Disparities | Michelle Birkett

2/3/2022, 12pm – 1pm EST

Introduction to Network Canvas Workshop | Michelle Birkett

2/4/2022, 10am – 12pm EST
Michelle Birkett (PhD, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign) is an assistant professor in the Department of Medical Social Sciences at Northwestern University. She also directs the CONNECT Complex Systems and Health Disparities Research Program within the Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing. Dr. Birkett’s research uses network and quantitative methodologies to understand the social contextual influence of stigma on the health and wellbeing of marginalized populations, and in particular, sexual and gender minority youth. This work is influenced by a multilevel perspective of health that considers direct and indirect influences of multiple levels of the social and physical environment. This multilevel approach to understanding health underlies her interest in network data and her commitment to conducting research that leads to social change at multiple levels of society to eliminate health disparities.

Behavioral Effects of Exposure to Political Content in Social Media | Sandra González-Bailón

3/11/2022, 12pm-1pm EST

Sandra González-Bailón (PhD, University of Oxford) is an Associate Professor at the Annenberg School for Communication and an affiliated faculty at the Warren Center for Network and Data Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research lies at the intersection of network science, data mining, computational tools, and political communication. Her applied research looks at how online networks shape exposure to information, with implications for how we think about political engagement, mobilization dynamics, information diffusion, and news consumption. She is the author of the book Decoding the Social World (MIT Press, 2017) and co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of Networked Communication (OUP, 2020). She serves as Associate Editor for the journals Social Networks, EPJ Data Science, and The International Journal of Press/Politics, and she is a member of the Board of Reviewing Editors for Science. She leads the research group DiMeNet (/daɪmnet/) — acronym for Digital Media, Networks, and Political Communication.

2021

Combating Visual Misinformation in Online Networks | Cuihua (Cindy) Shen

9/17/2021, 12pm– 1pm EST

Cuihua (Cindy) Shen (PhD, University of Southern California), is a Professor of Communication and East Asian Studies at the University of California, Davis. Dr. Shen’s research and teaching interests revolve around the structure and impact of social networks in various online platforms. These sites include social networking apps (such as Facebook and WeChat), Massively Multiplayer Online Games (such as EverQuest II, World of Tanks, Eve Online), and other online communities designed for collaborative peer production, social support and political discussion. More recently, she has also taken an interest in the reaction to and diffusion of online misinformation and how we could correct it, especially misinformation in multimedia format.

On Data-Intensive Work | Joshua Barbour

10/15/2021, 12pm– 1pm EST
Joshua Barbour (PhD, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) is an associate professor of Communication Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. He is a faculty affiliate of the Center for Health Communication, a collaboration between the Moody College of Communication and Dell Medical School. He founded the Automation Policy and Research Organizing Network (APRON) and directs the APRON Lab. Dr. Barbour studies how organizations design and discipline communication to solve problems. His research focuses on how macromorphic, societal structures complicatecommunication, organizing, and how people manage information and make meaning. His current research focuses on understanding the communicative difficulties of data-intensive work.