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The Network of Alternative Social Media Researchers

Elfen profile image

Zenna Elfen

Zenna is currenty a research assistant at Aarhus University in Denmark as part of the FOSS research group and the Next Generation Internet Search initiative. Her research centers on communication infrastructures, specifically resilient and adaptive systems such as local-first, peer-to-peer and distributed protocols. She is embedded in larger networks of activists and hackers (the nice kind) and have for the past 16 years been a part of projects such as Scuttlebutt the Gossiping Protocol, the Nordic and Global FabLab Network as well as prototyping labs in Sweden. Her current research delves further into local-first, distributed and P2P communication networks, collectively referred to as Peer-for-Peer technologies.

Areas of interest:

  • P2P, Peer-to-Peer, P4P, Peer-for-Peer, Local-First,
  • Communication Infrastructure,Open-Source, Internet
  • Organization, Liquid Systems, Self-Organization, Complexity Theory

You can learn more about Zenna Elfen at their homepage.

Frost-Arnold profile image

Karen Frost-Arnold

Karen Frost-Arnold is a Professor of Philosophy at Hobart & William Smith Colleges in Geneva, NY in the US. Her research focuses on the philosophy of the internet, the epistemology and ethics of trust, social epistemology, philosophy of science, and feminist philosophy. Her book “Who Should We Be Online? A Social Epistemology for the Internet” was published by Oxford University Press in 2023. She has published articles on the epistemology of alternative social media, Wikipedia, internet anonymity and accountability, online context collapse, internet imposters and tricksters, social media and prejudice, and several articles on the nature of trust. She is also a Visiting Professor at the African Centre for Epistemology and Philosophy of Science at the University of Johannesburg.

Areas of interest:

  • Epistemology of the internet
  • Social epistemology
  • Feminist philosophy

You can learn more about Karen Frost-Arnold at their homepage.

Gehl profile image

Robert W. Gehl

Robert W. Gehl is the Ontario Research Chair of Digital Governance for Social Justice at York University. He is currently finishing a book, titled Move Slowly and Build Bridges, which focuses on Mastodon and the fediverse. He has has been researching alternative social media since the early 2010s.

Areas of interest:

  • Alternative social media
  • Digital cultures
  • Digital ethnography

You can learn more about Robert W. Gehl at their homepage.

Gerrand profile image

Dr Vivian Gerrand

Dr Vivian Gerrand is a Research Fellow and an associate investigator on the ARC-funded Anti-Women Online Movements Project at the Alfred Deakin Institute, Deakin University. She is an Executive member of the AVERT Network. Vivian has been awarded prestigious AEUIFAI, Endeavour and Max Weber Fellowships at the EUI and was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre for Resilient and Inclusive Societies (2021-24). Vivian was a Chief Investigator on the European Commission funded BRaVE (Building Resilience against Violent Extremism and Polarization) project. Vivian holds a PhD from the University of Melbourne and is the author of Possible Spaces of Somali Belonging (MUP, 2016). Vivian has written Op-Eds for the ABC, The Conversation, Open Democracy and Overland and has appeared as an expert commentator for ABC Radio National, Al-Jazeera, The Age, News.com and SBS.

Areas of interest:

  • Alternative narratives
  • Extremism
  • Polarisation

You can learn more about Dr Vivian Gerrand at their homepage.

Gray profile image

Jonathan W. Y. Gray

Jonathan W. Y. Gray (@jwyg) is Director of the Centre for Digital Culture and Reader in Critical Infrastructure Studies at the Department of Digital Humanities, King’s College London. He is also cofounder of the Public Data Lab and Research Associate at the Digital Methods Initiative (University of Amsterdam) and the médialab (Sciences Po, Paris). He has taught with the School for Poetic Computation in NYC. His research critically and creatively engages with the roles of digital data, methods and infrastructures in society. More can be found at jonathangray.org.

Areas of interest:

  • critical technical practice
  • infrastructure studies
  • digital methods

You can learn more about Jonathan W. Y. Gray at their homepage.

Kingston Mann profile image

Larisa Kingston Mann

Larisa Kingston Mann is an Associate Professor in Media Studies & Production at Temple University. She explores the intersection of law, technology, and popular/underground/diasporic cultures. Current projects include: 1) investigating surveillance technology in nightlife with a policy angle aimed at city governments who regulate and license nightlife and a community angle which will facilitate discussions of safety within nightlife-oriented communities. 2) a chapter for the Oxford Handbook of Electronic Music about copyright law and electronic dance music (informed by my work -and book- on copyright as a colonial system). 3) a paper on the continued importance of refusal, silence and maybe even gaps in research in the context of presumed total accessibility and knowledge that comes from networked media technology and big data, both of which tend to presumes consent/facilitate a colonizer's attitude.

Areas of interest:

  • Studying the legal and material conditions that suppport liberatory cultural practices
  • Ethnography
  • Critical Race Intellectual Property

You can learn more about Larisa Kingston Mann at their homepage.

Lingel profile image

Jessa Lingel

Jessa Lingel is an associate professor at the Annenberg School for Communication, where she studies digital culture, looking for the ways that relationships to technology can show us gaps in power or possibilities for social change. She received her Ph.D. in Communication and Information from Rutgers University. She has an M.L.I.S. from Pratt Institute and an M.A. from New York University.

Areas of interest:

  • feminism
  • surveillance
  • ethnography

You can learn more about Jessa Lingel at their homepage.

Martin profile image

Alexander Martin

Alexander Martin is a PhD student in Science and Technology Studies (STS) at York University. His research focuses on alternative social media platforms, particularly Mastodon and Bluesky, and how Canadians are using these decentralized networks to share news and engage in public discourse beyond the control of U.S.-based tech monopolies. Mastodon provides a unique case study for examining digital sovereignty and the potential for alternative communication networks to foster more localized, inclusive, and equitable digital ecosystems. In addition to studying these platforms, Martin explores the broader societal impacts of emerging technologies, including privacy, misinformation, and the influence of algorithms on public discourse. He examines how advancements in technology affect privacy rights and contribute to the spread of misinformation through algorithmic amplification. Martin’s work is situated within the context of Canadian legislation, such as the Online News Act and Online Harms Act, which emphasize the need for Canadian-centric digital spaces.

Areas of interest:

  • Qualtative
  • Digital Ethnography
  • Policy Analysis

You can learn more about Alexander Martin at their homepage.

Sinnreich profile image

Aram Sinnreich

Aram Sinnreich is a musician, author, and professor at American University School of Communication. His latest nonfiction book is "The Secret Life of Data" (MIT Press, 2024), and his science fiction novel "A Second Chance for Yesterday" (Solaris Books, 2023, written with Rachel Hope Cleves as R.A. Sinn) was recently released in paperback.

Areas of interest:

  • critical data studies
  • sound studies
  • intellectual property

You can learn more about Aram Sinnreich at their homepage.

Sylvia IV profile image

J.J. Sylvia IV

J.J. Sylvia IV, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Communications Media at Fitchburg State University, where he has co-founded an undergraduate major in Digital Media Innovation and a Master’s Degree in Applied Communication, Social Media. He researches and teaches the philosophy and ethics of communication, focusing on big data and posthuman media studies. His posthuman approach examines how media and technology shape both our identity as subjects and our understanding of the world. He’s also working on developing anti-fascist social media platform designs. J.J. lives in Worcester, Massachusetts with his wife and two daughters. His hobbies include family genealogy, stewarding a Little Free Library, traveling, and exploring New England through activities such as hiking, biking, paddling, and camping.

Areas of interest:

  • posthumanism
  • philosophy of communication
  • anti-fascist communication

You can learn more about J.J. Sylvia IV at their homepage.

Theophilos profile image

Jamie Theophilos

Jamie Theophilos is a doctoral candidate and associate instructor at the Media School at Indiana University Bloomington. Jamie's research interests involve alternative histories of the internet, online subcultures, issues of privacy, and the proliferation of online harassment. Their theoretical framework is influenced by the intersections between Science and Technology studies and critical Media studies through various qualitative methodologies- from ethnographic to historical. Most recently, Jamie has published an essay titled "Closing the Door to Remain Open: The Politics of Openness and the Practices of Strategic Closure in the Fediverse" in the journal Social Media + Society, which looks at the resistance of Fediverse users against corporate capture. Jamie also has an upcoming publication on the role of alternative social media and the development of counter-narratives within the Stop Cop City Movement. Presently, their dissertation work is on developing a material history of doxxing. Jamie is also the Media Activism Scholar Interest Group graduate representative for the Society for Cinema and Media Studies. Alongside their academic interests, Jamie is an enthusiastic moderator on a Mastodon server and a long-time lover of digital media production, from video editing and motion graphics animation to experimental web design.

Areas of interest:

  • digital cultures
  • online harassment
  • privacy

You can learn more about Jamie Theophilos at their homepage.

Van Raemdonck profile image

Nathalie Van Raemdonck

Nathalie Van Raemdonck (She/They) is a PhD candidate at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. She spends most of her time in Barcelona where here partner lives. Nathalie came from the cybersecurity and policy field, where she was occupied with the norms of responsible state behaviour in cyberspace. Her interest in internet security extended to social media when she started her PhD in media and communication studies, as she looked into how the norms of user behaviour is shaped by platform affordances. She started studying Alternative Social Media Networks as an answer to corporate social media, with an interest in governance practices and power concentrations in user populations.

Areas of interest:

  • social norms
  • affordances
  • governance

You can learn more about Nathalie Van Raemdonck at their homepage.

Vertesi profile image

Janet Vertesi

Janet has spent the past twenty years embedded with robotic spacecraft teams at NASA exploring the universe and has written several books about her work with these publicly-sponsored high-tech teams on the cutting edge of science. She is also an adament conscientious objector to the personal data economy and a supporter of many projects, large and small, free and licensed, open and closed, that evade human data mining and enable alternative approaches to sociotechnical life.

Areas of interest:

  • NASA
  • alt tech
  • ethnography

You can learn more about Janet Vertesi at their homepage.