Rod M. Abhari
I am a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Communication at Northwestern University, where I work in The Center for Media Psychology and Social Influence supervised by Dr. Nathan Walter. My research uses computational methods to show how digital media is used by reactionary publics to undermine civic trust.
My latest article, forthcoming in Public Understanding of Science, investigates the use of social media to undermine scientific publishing and popularize conspiracies about scientific retractions.
I'm on the job market for postdoc and industry research positions in online Trust & Safety!
News
2024
Our research on using AI to detect violent imagery received a top paper award for the upcoming National Communication Association 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.
Presented my research on retraction conspiracies at the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) conference in Amsterdam. Slides available here.
Presented research on violent memes at the Social Media & Society (SM+S) conference in London.
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.