Students

Alejandro (Alex) Alvarado Rojas

Alejandro is a doctoral student in Communication at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, University of Southern California. He aims to unpack the tensions and opportunities arising from at the intersection of datafication, social change, and governance. His research is influenced by the fields of Critical Data Studies, Communication and Science and Technology Studies (STS) with an emphasis on collective action, publics…

Alphoncina Lyamuya

Alphoncina Lyamuya is a doctoral student at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, University of Southern California. Her research focuses on the use and legitimation of emerging digital technologies and automated decision-making systems by governments and transnational organizations in migration management and humanitarian governance. She also looks at ways the digitalization and automation of…

Angel Chavez Penate

Angel Chavez-Penate, is a Master’s student in the Viterbi School of Engineering at the University of Southern California, studying applied data science. He earned his B.A. in Economics from the University of Southern California with a minor in Business Finance. Angel’s research interests lie in communications and machine learning. His past research centered around price…

Eugene Jang

Eugene Jang is a doctoral student at USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, and a Korea Foundation for Advanced Studies (KFAS) fellow. Prior to joining Annenberg, she graduated from Seoul National University (SNU), receiving her B.A. and M.A. in Communication. She formerly served as a research assistant at the SNU Big Data Institute and…

Hoan (Sarah) Nguyen

Sarah Nguyen is a PhD student at USC’s Annenberg School of Communication. Her research interests lie in the field of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) and Society, with a focus on technology for social change, digital humanities and (in)equalities. Her studies investigate the role technology and new media, such as the mobile phone and Internet, play…

Juan Ortiz Freuler

Juan Ortiz Freuler is an incoming PhD student at Annenberg, and an Affiliate at the Berkman Klein Center. Juan explores how political systems can be affected by design choices at the internet and web layers of the stack. Juan is also Co-Initiator of the Non-Aligned Tech Movement, an Associate at JustLabs and a member of…

Ke M. Huang-Isherwood

Ke M. Huang-Isherwood is a licensed attorney and social science scholar. Her research areas are at the intersection of communication and law, which include digital literacy, gamification, and social influence. Ke employs communication network and media psychology theories, and quantitative methodologies. Her previous survey research and social intervention work has been funded by the Center…

Kyooeun Jang

  Kyooeun is interested in platform governance, specifically the influence of big tech on shaping norms in content governance. She received her MA from Harvard University’s Regional Studies East Asia program. Her master’s thesis explored how the monetization of social media platforms has affected the conceptualization of gender and work amongst female millennials in South…

Paulina Lanz

Paulina Lanz is a PhD student at USC’s Annenberg School of Communication. She identifies in buildings and urban place a source of memoirs and nostalgia, which are essential to media foundations. Alongside her academic background with a BA in Communications and an MA in Art Studies from Universidad Iberoamericana (Mexico City), cities have led her to…

Soyun Ahn

Soyun is a Ph.D. student at USC Annenberg. Her research explores how information technologies, communication practices, and political systems interact to bring about social change. Prior to USC, she earned her MA in Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and BA in Law from Yonsei University in South Korea. In between, she…