Short Bio

I am a senior researcher at the Digital Democracy Lab within the Department of Political Science at the University of Zurich. I’m working under the supervision of Professor Fabrizio Gilardi.

My research interests focus broadly around framing theory, information operations, opinion dynamics, social influence, and intergroup relationships. Methodologically, I integrate innovative information and communication technologies in political science and policy analysis issues. More specifically, I use a mix of approaches including text-as-data methods, causal inference, machine learning, network analysis, and agent-baed modeling to explore various drivers of social influence, emerging security threats to democracy, and political extremism.

Previous Academic Positions

  • 2020 - 2021: Data Science Fellow, Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy, Harvard University, MA, USA.
  • 2018 - 2020: Postdoctoral Research Associate at ESOC, Princeton University, NJ, USA.
  • 2016 - 2018: Post-doc at CNetS, School of Informatics, Indiana University Bloomington, IN, USA.
  • 2013 - 2016: Presidential Scholar, George Mason University, VA, USA.
  • 2015 (July): Visiting Scholar, Qatar Computing Research Institute, Doha, Qatar.
  • 2015 (Spring Semester): Visiting Scholar, Social Dynamics Lab, Department of Sociology, Cornell University, NY, USA.
  • 2010 - 2012: Research Assistant to Prof. Michael Lewis, School of Information Science, University of Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
  • 2009 - 2010: Instructor, Department of Information Systems, University of Maryland Baltimore County, MD, USA.

Education

  • PhD, Computational Social Science, George Mason University, VA, USA, 2013 - 2016.
  • MSc, Information Science, University of Pittsburgh, PA, USA, 2010 - 2012.
  • MSc, Industrial Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran, 2007 - 2009.
  • BSc, Industrial Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran, 2003 - 2007.