People

Xinyi Liu is a Ph.D. student in Northwestern University's Department of Communication Studies. Her research examines how social media algorithms and generative AI shape information flows and political communication across comparative contexts. Methodologically, she applies causal inference and computational multimodal analysis to analyze large-scale visual and video data. 

Haohang Otto Xin is a Ph.D. student at Northwestern University. His work combines data science with communication theory to reveal how generative AI and algorithm-driven messaging systems shape the spread of information and sway public opinion. He also develops multimodal models and computational methods that advance large-scale analysis of political communication.

Fatima is a PhD candidate at Northwestern University and a researcher at the Center for Communication and Public Policy. She investigates how media logics, platforms, and ecosystems shape contemporary politics. Her research focuses on social media influencers, alt-tech platforms, and propaganda using multimodal computational methods, network analysis, and quantitative methods.

Qiyao Peng is a Ph.D. student in Communication at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her research focuses on persuasion, health communication, and computational social science, with an emphasis on how message design and digital media environments influence behaviors and health-related decision-making. 

Cong Lin is a Ph.D. candidate and a visiting PhD student at the University of Zurich. His research focuses on using experimental and computational methods to study AI algorithms and their social impacts, multimodal formation, and user effects.

Yuting He is a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Journalism and Media at the University of Texas at Austin. She examines how generative AI and digital platforms reconfigure human agency in news engagement and political communication, mainly using computational and experimental methods. She is also developing methods for using generative AI to augment social science research.

Artur Baranov is a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science at Northwestern University. His research examines authoritarian regime persistence through legislative politics. He uses computational text-as-data methods to analyze political rhetoric and elite behavior under authoritarianism.