Rod M. Abhari
Hello! I am a Ph.D. Candidate in the School of Communication at Northwestern University. I am a member of The Center for Media Psychology and Social Influence supervised by Dr. Nathan Walter.
Counterknowledge, or beliefs that challenge the authority of institutions, is a powerful force in today's civil society. My research uses qualitative and computational methods to investigate the social production and political impact of counterknowledge in online communities.
My work with the The Center for Media Psychology and Social Influence explores the consequences of scientific conspiracies, and my work with the Center for Communication and Public Policy develops a framework for evaluating the threat of extremist memes in online communities.
News
2024
Our research on intersectional violence on alt-tech platforms received a top paper award in the Visual Communication division for the National Communication Association '24 conference! Learn more about this project in an article we published for VOX-Pol.
Invited speaker on a panel about the online (mis)use of science for Scientists Speak Up at Stanford University, archived here.
Published a preprint about the politics of retractions! When Retractions Fail: Conspiracy and Denial in Online Attention to COVID-19 Retractions.
Published about COVID-19 health outcomes in Health Communication! Dying to Fit In: How Interpersonal Networks Shape COVID-19 Health Outcomes Through Discussion and Social Norms.
2023
Co-author of 'Social Media Sentiment about COVID-19 Vaccination Predicts Vaccine Acceptance among Peruvian Social Media Users the Next Day,' for Vaccines.
Co-author of 'A Picture is Worth a Thousand (S)words,' detailing the content and diffusion of extremist memes on Parler, for the Global Network on Extremism and Technology.
Presented research on multilayer network analysis at ICA 2023 and Sunbelt 2023.
2022
Awarded £6,000 GNET fellowship to create an automated classifier for extremist memes.
Presented two papers on scientific retractions at IC2S2 2022.
Presented on conspiracy networks at ICA 2022.
Presented on coordinated inauthentic news at MPSA 2022.
New preprint, 'Twitter Engagement with Retracted Articles: Who, When, and How?' Co-written with Nick Vincent, Henry Dambanemuya, Herminio Bodon, and Agnes Horvat.
Awarded $125,000 Peterson Fund for COVID-19 (Mis)information Research with Drs. Nathan Walter & Agnes Horvat.