We are delighted to have two interns joining us this summer. Spencer Kaplan is a PhD Candidate in sociocultural anthropology at Yale University. He is currently writing an ethnography of AI researchers and engineers in the San Francisco Bay Area. Drawing from time spent in an AI agents startup and an AI safety lab, his research …
Category: Interns
Meet the new SMC interns, postdoc, and pre-doc!
It's that time again. Summer brings us four new SMC interns, a new SMC postdoc, and a new pre-doc research assistant! In their work, you'll see reflected our shift towards AI and data, but also many of the persistent concerns of the SMC: the implications for media, discursive imaginaries around new technologies, data and justice, …
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Ph.D. Internship Opportunity studying Organizational Copilot Adoption
Microsoft Research and the Viva product group are looking for an advanced PhD student for a 12-week paid internship bridging Viva’s user research team and Microsoft Research’s Cambridge, Massachusetts-based group of sociotechnically-oriented social scientists (that's us!). The internship will be in-person, based in Cambridge, MA. This intern will work with a Microsoft Research mentor and the …
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Apply now for the 2025 MSRNE summer internship in sociotechnical systems
Microsoft Research New England is looking for advanced Ph.D. students who are bringing sociotechnical perspectives to analyze critical issues of our time, to apply for our summer internship. They will join a team of social scientists who use qualitative or quantitative, empirical or critical methods to study the social, political, and cultural dynamics that shape …
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Welcoming our new SMC postdoc and 2024 interns!
We're once again lucky to share our offices with an extremely talented cohort of PhD student interns and a brand new postdoc. This year's new hires are conducting sociotechnical research spanning from digital harms and health, to shifting cultural imaginaries of work, to generative AI's role in data production, democracy, and even disaster management. Join …
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Apply for the 2024 SMC summer internships in sociotechnical systems
Microsoft Research New England is looking for advanced Ph.D. students interested in bringing sociotechnical perspectives to analyze critical issues of our time. They will join a team of social scientists who use qualitative or quantitative, empirical or critical methods to study the social, political, and cultural dynamics that shape technologies and their consequences. Our work …
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Your Guide to the SMC at AoIR 2023
We are very proud to announce that more than 30 current and past Social Media Collective researchers will be presenting their work at this year’s Association of Internet Researchers conference in Philadelphia. The SMC and AoIR go way back—the SMC’s Senior Principal Research Manager Nancy Baym led organizing efforts for the first AoIR conference in …
Meet the 2023 SMC Sociotechnical Systems PhD Interns!
The MSR Social Media Collective put the call out for PhD students studying sociotechnical systems from interdisciplinary perspectives that foster careful (and caring) critique. We were, once again, BLOWN away by the amazing applications (the force is strong in us, friends!) Here is the intern cohort joining us for our 2023 cycle: Negin Alimohammadi is …
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Internship Opportunity! Leaders, Employees, and Connection in Enterprise Social Media
Together with Viva + Yammer and Glint, we are looking for an advanced PhD student for a 12-week paid internship bridging these applied research teams and our Cambridge, Massachusetts-based group of social scientists using empirical and critical methods to study sociotechnical dynamics. Interns will be expected to be physically present and contribute to the life of …
Meet the 2022 SMC interns!
The Social Media Collective once again has a bounty of bright and talented interns joining us for 2022. Some have already joined us; most will be working with us over the summer months. Here they are! Benjamin Ale-Ebrahim (he/him) is a fifth year Ph.D. candidate in Anthropology at Indiana University. At MSR, he will be …