I am a practitioner-in-residence in the English Department at the University of New Haven. While I primarily teach first-year writing, my background in creative and professional writing informs much of my teaching and scholarly endeavors. My experience in web editing and social media management, for example, has guided my exploration of social media as a research tool.
My interest in social media twofold: I am particularly fascinated by the ways in which scholars use social media to network, build community, and educate in public spaces, but I am also interested in how social media allows us learn more about people—their habits, their behaviors, their opinions, and how they choose to reveal those things in short, written communications in front of a global audience.
Because I also have a passion for video games and gaming culture, I am specifically interested in the gaming and esports communities active on Twitter, and I am currently using Mozdeh, a data collection and text-analysis tool, to look at the way fans may exhibit “toxic behavior” in tweets posted during live esports competitions.
I am happy to help students develop research projects that harness Mozdeh’s powerful data collection and text-analysis features. I can also work with students looking to use social media to share their research in new and interesting ways.
