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 counter-knowledge in online communities.
My work with the Laboratory on Innovation, Networks, and Knowledge looks at the role of retracted research in COVID-19 skepticism, 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
Publication in Health Communication! Dying to Fit In: How Interpersonal Networks Shape COVID-19 Health Outcomes Through Discussion and Social Norms.
Read about our research classifying violent images on alt-tech platforms, published for VOX-Pol.
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.