LaRisa Anderson
LaRisa Anderson is a Ph.D. candidate and Roy H. Park Fellow in the Hussman School of Journalism and Media at UNC Chapel Hill. She researches American religion and technoculture, with a particular interest in digital religious culture. LaRisa holds a Master of Arts in Media Studies from the University of Texas at Austin. Previously, her work was presented in Paris, FR, at the 72nd International Communication Association conference and in Belfast, IR, at the inaugural Critical Research on Religion conference.
Katherine Furl
Katherine (Katie) Furl is a PhD candidate in Sociology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Her dissertation examines how inequalities linked to physical appearance intersect with processes of surveillance and pushback; social comparison and belonging; and the leveraging of credentials and authority across digital platforms. Katherine has previously researched male supremacist online communities and far-right online radicalization more broadly. She employs a combination of qualitative and computational methods in her work and appreciates reflexive and critical perspectives.
Viviane Ito
Viviane Ito is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Information Science at UNC-Chapel Hill. Her research interests are disinformation, misinformation, and gender bias within information and language. In the past, she developed research in women's experiences with chronic pain at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and in characterizing gender biases in Olympic athletes' discourses at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Her research methodology draws from the field of Computational Linguistics. Before her academic pursuits, she worked as a strategic planner and data analyst for various brands, collaborating closely with media companies.
Lorcan Neill
Lorcan Neill is a first-year PhD student in Media and Communication at UNC Hussman and a Knight-CITAP Fellow. His research largely focuses on the intersection of platforms and power with a specific interest in how digital technology impacts political institutions and democratic erosion. Lorcan is a 2022 graduate of George Washington University's School of Media and Public Affairs where he obtained his master's degree in media and strategic communication. Lorcan's master's thesis focused on the role of the technology stack in internet gatekeeping. A North Carolina native, Lorcan completed his undergraduate studies at North Carolina State University in political science and communication.
Christian Pearce
Christian Pearce is a master’s student in Library Science at UNC-Chapel Hill. His research interests focus on historically perpetuated inequalities tied to disinformation and misinformation in minority groups. With a background in anthropology, his research pulls from both qualitative and quantitative methods to better understand these inequalities, their evolution throughout time, and how their influences affect people contemporarily.
Evan Ringel
Evan Ringel is a Ph.D. Park Fellow at the Hussman School of Journalism and Media at UNC-Chapel Hill. He holds a J.D. from the University of North Carolina School of Law and an M.A. from Hussman. Evan’s research focuses on the intersection between the First Amendment, civil rights, and government regulation, especially at the state and local level.
Carolyn Schmitt
Carolyn Schmitt is a Knight-CITAP Fellow at the Hussman School of Journalism and Media at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Her research focuses on the intersection of far-right and mainstream media. Previously, she worked in communications at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University and was a researcher on their Public Discourse in the U.S. 2020 Election project. She holds a BA in Media Studies from the University of Virginia and an MA in Media and Communication from UNC.
Ian Williams
Ian Williams is a North Carolina native, and has been a DJ, game designer, labor reporter, and pro wrestling historian. Prior to pursuing his PhD, he was a featured weekly columnist at VICE Sports, and his writing on digital labor and other topics can be found at Jacobin, VICE, Paste, The Guardian, and quite a few others. Ian’s research interests concern the connections between design, mass production, and craft movements. He examines both the labor conditions under which these activities occur and the communities which spring up around them. His prospective dissertation is in an examination of the material history of miniatures wargaming, both as a matter of political economy and how they are used to imagine history.