Introduction
Introduction
I am a recent PhD of Information Science & Technology at Syracuse University’s iSchool currently working at the National Science Foundation as a STEM Analyst within CISE/CPI: the Cyber, Physical, and Intelligent Systems division of the Computer and Information Science and Engineering directorate.
My primary research is closely tied to a relatively novel theoretical program of memetics: the study of memes. I am approaching memes in a unique direction as a cultural heritage informatician with applications to memory institutions such as libraries, archives, and museumms. Within digital media, this work intersects with cyber-infrastructures and has overlaps with internet cultural research, social media studies, and cultural analytics. Previous research on the subject either aligns with Richard Dawkins’ original conception of them as being the cultural analogy to genes or with Limor Shifman’s internet meme. My work, by contrast provides a synthesis of these two perspectives with theoretical updates for contemporary information, media, and cybernetic theory.
I have published a set of interrellated papers in prestegious information-centric journals such as Journal of Documentation, Social Media & Society, and Convergence and conferences such as ASIS&T, iConference, and CSCW. Also some of these papers develop what I have called “the methodology of difference.” This is an ongoing project, which I hope develops into a full book manuscript in the near future that combines recent Deleuzian Ontological philosophy with Laruellian “non-philosophy” in order to produce an applicable “science of philosophy” with memes as a foundational object of study.
I am also currently an independent research affiliate of the Center for Computational and Data Sciences (CCDS), focused primarily on the Gravity Spy citizen science project managed by Dr. Kevin Crowston and Dr. Carsten Østerlund. My work for Gravity Spy over the last two years has been related to updating their information system, and developing AI agents for summarizing highly specialized discourse across relevant knowledge groups to lower the knowledge gaps between them. Developing these tools provides more accessibility for laboratory scientists, engineers, and citizen scientists to communicate across boundaries of their relevant specializations.
I also have prior work affiliated with Metadata Lab with Dr. Jian Qin and NIIC Lab with Dr. Jeff Hemsley. This work spans developments in science of science, social media analytics, multimodal media research, and cross-platform research.
To learn more about me personally or to see my full list of academic contributions, please take a look at my “About” page or academic vitae below!