Sharaj (they/she) is a joint PhD-student with Brooke Foucault Welles and Samuel V Scarpino. They're broadly interested in studying how media discourses about queer issues evolve and reflect (if not drive) public attitudes. Her current work focuses on devising mixed-methods approaches to study public health messaging surrounding the Mpox epidemic. Prior to joining NetSI, they were a research assistant at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behaviour, Konstanz, studying collective decision-making and movement across various sociobiological systems. She holds a B.S in Physics from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.