Alumnus

Joan Donovan

Joan Donovan is an alumnus of Data & Society; from 2017-18, she served as project lead on media manipulation. She is a professor of journalism and emerging media studies at Boston University. Previously, she was the director of the Technology and Social Change Research Project at Harvard Kennedy’s Shorenstein Center. For several years, Joan has conducted action research with different networked social movements in order to map and improve the communication infrastructures built by protesters. In her role as a participant, she identifies information bottlenecks, decodes algorithmic behavior, and connects organizations with other like-minded networks. After completing her PhD in Sociology and Science Studies at the University of California San Diego, Joan was a postdoctoral fellow at the UCLA Institute for Society and Genetics, where she researched white supremacists’ use of DNA ancestry tests, social movements, and technology.