Adina Gitomer
Graduate Research Assistant
I am a fourth-year student in the Network Science Ph.D. program at Northeastern. I earned my undergraduate degree in computer science and critical social theory at Wesleyan University. With full appreciation for the harms wrought by the internet, my research focuses on the ways in which it gives voice, visibility, and access to marginalized groups, and in turn, helps shift dominant cultural attitudes and narratives. I mix network science tools with qualitative methods to explore how youth in particular leverage social media for political participation and social change. I’ve led a project about the way keyword-based data collection obscures young users’ participation in online political discourse, which received a top student paper award in the Political Communication Division at the 72nd Annual International Communication Association conference. I’ve also led work on how young people remix activist content on TikTok, and am currently analyzing how youth activists exploit online affordances to reconfigure power in movement building. Some things that I love outside of research include word games, puzzles, Set, and glitter.