The Social Data Research and Dissertation Fellowship program, supported by the Omidyar Network, seeks to encourage multifaceted pathways for the collection and analysis of social data, with the larger aim of cultivating robust research on technology and society. In the initial grant cycle, fellows were asked to focus on the forthcoming 2020 election in the United States, while thinking creatively about possible approaches to gathering and analyzing relevant data.

Visit the full award announcement for further information about the context for the program, an overview of the selection process, and a discussion of the awardees.

The following are awardees from the Social Data Research and Dissertation Fellowship program:

Community Partisanship: How Local Processes Produce National Politics

Principal Investigator

Stephanie Ternullo

PhD Candidate, University of Chicago

Social Data Research Fellowship

Does Demand Create Its Own Supply?: YouTube Politics during the 2020 Presidential Campaign

Principal Investigator

Kevin Munger

Assistant Professor, Penn State University

Social Data Research Fellowship

Historical Analogy, Covid-19, and the 2020 US Election: How Historical Misinformation Undermines Democratic Institutions

Principal Investigator

Jennifer Evans

Full Professor, Carleton University

Social Data Research Fellowship

Infodrought and Infodemic: Conceptualizing Information Vulnerabilities on Social Media

Principal Investigator

Kjerstin Thorson

Associate Professor, Michigan State University

Social Data Research Fellowship

Leveraging User-Generated Social Media Content to Understand Misinformation in American Politics

Principal Investigator

Taylor Carlson

Assistant Professor, Washington University in St. Louis

Social Data Research Fellowship

Longitudinal Investigation of Algorithmically Curated Content for Misinformation on Social Media Platforms

Principal Investigator

Prerna Juneja

PhD Student, University of Washington

Social Data Research Fellowship

Online Identity and Political Speech in Social Media

Principal Investigator

Hye Young You

Assistant Professor, New York University

Social Data Research Fellowship

Reconsidering the Connections between New Media, (In)Equality, and Political Participation in the United States

Principal Investigator

Brooke Foucault Welles

Associate Professor, Northeastern University

Social Data Research Fellowship

Social Media Incivility and Candidate Gender during the 2020 US Election

Principal Investigator

Ashley Muddiman

Associate Professor, University of Kansas Center for Research, Inc.

Social Data Research Fellowship

Solidarity and Strife: Democracies in a Time of Pandemic

Principal Investigator

Marion Fourcade

Professor of Sociology; Director of Social Science Matrix, University of California, Berkeley

Social Data Research Fellowship

Some Politics Are Still Local: Strategic Position Taking in Modern Campaigns for Congress

Principal Investigator

Rachel Porter

PhD Candidate, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Social Data Research Fellowship

The 2020 US Elections Post-GamerGate: Political Discourse among Iranian and Iranian-American Gamers on Social Media

Principal Investigator

Melinda Cohoon

PhD Candidate, University of Washington

Social Data Research Fellowship

Theorizing Social Media Skepticism: How Two Distinct Types of Skepticism Impact Information Behaviors and Election Legitimacy

Principal Investigator

Jianing Li

PhD Candidate and Knight Scholar of Communication and Civic Renewal, University of Wisconsin–Madison

Social Data Research Fellowship

Visualizing a Pandemic: Epistemological Conflicts over Covid-19 Data on Social Media

Principal Investigator

Crystal Lee

PhD Candidate, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Social Data Research Fellowship

Voter Education in the Digital Age: State and Local Election Official Use of Social Media

Principal Investigator

Mara Suttmann-Lea

Assistant Professor, Connecticut College

Social Data Research Fellowship

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