Alex Halavais's Page

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About Me: I am a social architect, interested in ways of helping form communities of creativity, freedom, and justice. In particular, I help people to discover ways in which social media changes the nature of scholarship and learning, and allows for new forms of collaboration and self-government.

I am an associate professor at Quinnipiac University, where I teach in a masters program in interactive communications. I formerly directed a masters program in informatics at the University at Buffalo, and was Research Director for the New Media Research Lab at the University of Washington. I have worked in marketing for a large financial services firm, designed simulations for NASA, worked as a public school teacher in Japan, and in city government as a budget analyst and planner. I have published articles and book chapters on how social media relates to social change, as well as a book introducing the social role of search engines. I am president of the Association of Internet Researchers and serve as the Technical Director of the Digital Media and Learning Hub based at the University of California Humanities Research Institute. I received a Ph.D. in Communications from the University of Washington, and a B.A. in Political Science from the University of California at Irvine.