Why Do Americans Disagree about Science and What Can We Do about It?

I will be working on a series of projects about political polarization and (lack of) trust in science. I will investigate why Americans disagree about science, how news media and social media contribute, and what we can do about it. A team of research partners could be involved in a variety of ways, depending on skills and interests as well as project needs. Some weeks might involve summarizing relevant academic readings in areas such as science communication, epistemology, information technology, information science, social movements, human-computer interaction, and science and technology studies.

The research partner will co-design their own project, for instance (a) manipulating news or social media network datasets to analyze information shared about science (if comfortable with Python or R—though not a requirement for the position); (b) conducting a discourse analysis about a current controversy (if comfortable with close reading—though not a requirement for the position); (c) interviewing citizens about how they get information about a particular controversy in science; (d) envisioning redesign of media ecosystems to increase trust in and understanding of science information. I am seeking a team of curious, self-motivated research partners who want to see how research projects develop over time.