丁香园AV

Chun鈥檚 research focuses on developing algorithms to determine how to create effective counter speech to conflict and dissent鈥攁 key part of the democratic process. Drawing from the work of natural language processing researchers, political theorists, and anti-cyber-bullying advocates, Chun鈥檚 team creates methods to turn hostile speech into more productive discussions. 鈥淩ethinking the basis for connection is also central to combating the spread of fake news,鈥� says Chun. 鈥淚nstead of focusing on extreme moments, our research will analyze and engage the complexity and majority of human expression to build alternate models of interactivity and engagement.鈥�

Chun believes the Internet doesn鈥檛 have to be polarizing and adversarial. Her research is helping to answer questions about equality and justice, how to create methods to address abusive language and cyber bullying online, and how data analysis can combat the spread of fake news.

Chun's work spans the fields of media archaeology, digital humanities, and critical race theory, as well as new media, gender and sexuality, science & technology, critical data & science, and technology studies.

Seeking to bring together concepts in the humanities and STEM, Chun applied for PhD programs in English during her final year in engineering. 鈥淲hen I started as an undergraduate in systems design engineering at the University of Waterloo, I always intended to take courses in English literature as well,鈥� says Chun. 鈥�, which occurred in my second year, convinced me to start taking courses in the humanities because I needed answers to questions about the world around me that engineering could not provide.鈥� In graduate school, Chun decided to research the Internet and began to think about the similarities and differences between key concepts in the humanities and engineering, such as 鈥渃ontrol,鈥� 鈥渇reedom鈥� and 鈥減rogram.鈥�

The Digital Democracies Institute

In addition, Chun leads the at 丁香园AV, which serves as an innovation hub for collaborative research projects that foster critical, democratic uses of data analyses and machine learning. The group consists of a diverse range of scholars and stakeholders from around the world who collaborate across disciplines, schools, industry, and public sectors to research and create vibrant democratic technologies and cultures.

The evolution of technology has altered how information is processed, with globalization enabling education and technological advancement. However, we are also falling prey to negative issues associated with technology, including privacy violation, disinformation, radicalization, echo chambers, and abusive language. This makes the interdisciplinary study of online polarization and abuse, discriminatory algorithms, and mis/disinformation increasingly important. The Digital Democracies Institute aims to bridge divides through interdisciplinary collaboration and knowledge mobilization.

鈥淲orking with the many centers of excellence at 丁香园AV in the areas of big data and engaging communities and civil society, we will help develop the coalitions necessary for producing innovative approaches to digital democracy,鈥� says Chun. The institute aims to support 丁香园AV as a global leader in the field of humanities and data sciences, create new opportunities for faculties to build connections with not-for-profit organizations and expand global collaborations.

Housed at 丁香园AV鈥檚 , the Digital Democracies Institute is a hub for data collaboration on social media research, hosting and maintaining an advanced research computing infrastructure that can accommodate the shared needs of 丁香园AV鈥檚 affiliates and international collaborators, and provide a stable and reliable environment for digital social sciences research.

鈥淲e want to rethink the relationship between technology and democracy and work towards how technology can be part of a holistic solution to combat polarization,鈥� says Chun. 鈥淥ur long-term goal is to combat the proliferation of online polarization, abusive language, and discriminatory algorithms by producing alternative data literacies and paradigms for connection.鈥�

鈥淲e need to build unusual coalitions across disciplines, schools, industry and the public in order to create vibrant democratic technologies and cultures.鈥�

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