The Lab
Located in the heart of downtown Toronto, the Social Media Lab is a multi- and interdisciplinary research laboratory at Ted Rogers School of Management at Ryerson University. The lab studies how social media is changing the way people and organizations communicate, share information, conduct business and form communities online, and how these changes impact society. The lab’s research seeks to advance the public’s understanding of the benefits and pitfalls of social media adoption.
The Social Media Lab was established in 2010 and is the first of its kind in North America. It is led by co-directors, Anatoliy Gruzd (PhD) – Dir. of Research and Philip Mai (JD) – Director of Business and Communications. The lab is internationally recognized and attracts a diverse range of outstanding multidisciplinary scholars from around the world each year. It is a leader in social media studies and is the convener of the annual International Conference on Social Media and Society (#SMSociety).
Co-Directors
Dr. Anatoliy Gruzd
Director of Research
Philip Mai
Director of Business and Communications
Canada Research Chair | Royal Society of Canada College Member| Professor – School of Information Technology Management, Ted Rogers School of Management, Ryerson University, Canada
MA, JD | Manager of Academic Communications – University Relations, Ryerson University, Canada
Dr. Caroline HaythornthwaiteResearch CollaboratorDirector of the MLIS Program | Professor – School of Information Studies, Syracuse University, USA
Dr. Jaigris HodsonResearch CollaboratorAssociate Professor – College of Interdisciplinary Studies, Royal Roads University, Canada | Canadian Science Policy Fellow – Environment and Climate Change, Government of Canada
Dr. Ángel Hernández-GarcíaResearch CollaboratorAssociate Professor – Department of Organizational Engineering, Business Administration and Statistics, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
Raquel RecueroVisiting Scholar 2018Associate Professor at the Communication and Linguistics Department at Universidade Federal de Pelotas (UFPEL/Brazil) and at the Post Graduate program of Communication and Information at Universidade Federal do Rio Grande Read More.
Dr. Priya KumarResearch FellowSenior Data Analyst – Digital Inclusion Lab, Centre for International Digital Policy at Global Affairs Canada(GAC), Canada
Dr. Jenna JacobsonResearch CollaboratorAssistant Professor – School of Retail Management, Ted Rogers School of Management, Ryerson University, Canada
Dr. Deena Abul-FottouhResearch CollaboratorAssistant Professor – Human Centred Data Science, Faculty of Information, University of Toronto, Canada
Dr. Melodie Yun-Ju SongResearch CollaboratorSocial Media Lab, Ted Rogers School of Management, Ryerson University, Canada
Alyssa SaiphooResearch AssistantPhD student, Psychology, Ryerson University
Kathleen-Emily WalshThesis StudentMA in Communications & Culture, Ryerson University
Felipe SoaresVisiting PhD StudentPhD student in Communication and Information, Universidade Federal de Pelotas (Brazil)
Shahnawaz AttarwalaBig Data Engineer and Spark DeveloperRyerson Social Media Lab, Ted Rogers School of Management
Isabelle RomanResearch Assistant - Graphic DesignerBA, Sport Media, Ryerson University
Rebeca C. CabreraResearch AssistantBachelor of Commerce, Ryerson University
Kelly HuynhResearch AssistantBachelor of Commerce, Ryerson University
Nikolai KrauseWeb Developer - Data AnalystBSc, Computer Engineering, Ryerson University
Tiago RibeiroSoftware/Web DeveloperBSc, Computer Science, Ryerson University
Aser Mohamed KhamisSoftware/Web DeveloperBSc, Computer Engineering, Ryerson University
Sophia LiResearch AssistantPublic Health, Ryerson University
Former postdoctoral fellows
- Melodie Song, 2019 (Current position: Health Systems Impact Fellow, Canada)
- Deena Abul-Fottouh, 2018 – 2019 (Current position: Assistant Professor, Canada)
- Priya Kumar, 2017 – 2018 (Current position: Senior Data Analyst, Canada)
- Jenna Jacobson, 2017 – 2018 (Current position: Assistant Professor, Canada)
- Nadia Conroy, 2017 – 2018 (Current position: Data Scientist, Canada)
- Marc Esteve del Valle, 2015-2016 (Current position: Assistant Professor, Netherlands)
Former research assistants, student co-authors and visiting students
- Irina Gorea, Graduate RA, Ted Rogers School of Management (TRSM), Ryerson University, 2019
- Zahra Vahedi, Graduate RA, Department of Psychology, Ryerson University, 2019-2020
- Felipe Soares, Visiting PhD Student in Communication and Information, Universidade Federal de Pelotas (Brazil), 2019-2020
- Oluwatomilayo (Tomi) Adegbite, Undergraduate RA, Faculty of Science, Computer Science, Ryerson University, 2018-2020
- Arvin Jagayat, Practicum Student, Department of Psychology, Ryerson University, 2019
- Sreekanth Thimiri Madamana, Visiting Undergraduate Student, Computer Science & Engineering, National Institute of Technology Agartala (India), 2019
- Liu (Leo) Zhuqing, Visiting Undergraduate Student, Network and New Media, Shanghai International Studies University (China), 2019
- Julia Ho, Graduate RA, Faculty of Communication & Design, Ryerson University, 2019
- Sarah Gilbert, PhD Student Collaborator, Information School, University of British Columbia, 2015-2018
- Jill Liu, Visiting Master’s Student, School of Information Management, Dalhousie University (Canada), 2019
- Michael Pacheco, Undergraduate RA, Faculty of Science, Computer Science, Ryerson University, 2016-2018
- Di (Corrine) Yang, Visiting Undergraduate Student, Sociology, Fudan University (China), 2018
- Jordan Kilfoy, Undergraduate RA, Faculty of Science, Computer Science, Ryerson University, 2017
- Kary Jiang, Undergraduate RA, TRSM, Ryerson University, 2017
- Alyssa Torres, Undergraduate RA, TRSM, Ryerson University, 2017
- Stephanie Tran, Undergraduate RA, TRSM, Ryerson University, 2017
- Kamran Mirshahi, Undergraduate RA, Faculty of Science, Computer Science, Ryerson University, 2017
- James Lannigan, Graduate RA, Sociology, University of Toronto, 2016-2018
- Bradly Dahdaly, Undergraduate RA, TRSM, Ryerson University, 2016
- Anantha Soogoor, Undergraduate RA, TRSM, Ryerson University, 2016-2017
- Jaeduk Seo, Undergraduate RA, Faculty of Science, Computer Science, Ryerson University, 2016-2017
- Paarth Arora, Undergraduate RA, Faculty of Science, Computer Science, Ryerson University, 2016
- Ben O’Bright, PhD Student Collaborator, Department of Political Science, Dalhousie University, 2015-2016
- Nick (Yueh-Ching) Lin, Graduate RA, TRSM, Ryerson University, 2015-2016
- Dimitrina Dimitrova, Research Associate, Social Media Lab, Ryerson University, 2015
- Veronica Chernyavsky, Undergraduate RA, TRSM, Ryerson University, 2015-2016
- Raghunath Soogoor, Undergraduate RA, Seneca College, York University, 2017
- Francisco Grajales, Visiting PhD Student, The eHealth Strategy Office & Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia, 2015-2016
- Gokul Sundararajan, Graduate RA, TRSM, Ryerson University, Ryerson University, 2015
- Nathan LaPierre, Undergraduate/Graduate RA, Faculty of Computer Science, Dalhousie University, 2013-2016
- Shawn Menzies, Undergraduate RA, TRSM, Ryerson University, 2015
- Lee Wilson, Graduate RA, School of Information Management, Dalhousie University, 2013-2014
- Andrea Kampen, Graduate RA, School of Information Management, Dalhousie University. 2013-2014
- Richard Pannell, Undergraduate RA, College of Sustainability, Dalhousie University, 2014-2015
- Andrey Kulakevich, Undergraduate RA, Faculty of Computer Science, Dalhousie University, 2014
- Samantha Fritz, Graduate RA, School of Information Management, Dalhousie University, 2013-2014
- Carlisle Kent, Graduate RA, School of Information Management, Dalhousie University. 2014
- Kaitlin Haley, Graduate RA, School of Information Management, Dalhousie University, 2013-2014
- Sarah Visintini, Graduate RA, School of Information Management, Dalhousie University, 2013-2014
- Tomasz Niewiarowski, Graduate RA, Faculty of Computer Science, Dalhousie University, 2012-2013
- Madeline Driscoll, Graduate RA, Faculty of Management, Dalhousie University, 2012-2013
- Catherine McGoveran, Graduate RA, School of Information Management, Dalhousie University, 2012-2013
- Ryan Dyck, Graduate RA, School of Information Management, Dalhousie University, 2012-2013
- Ashley Greene, Practicum Student, Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie University, 2012
- Axel Soto, Web Developer, Faculty of Computer Science, Dalhousie University, 2012
- Raheleh Makki, Web Developer, Faculty of Computer Science, Dalhousie University, 2012
- Özge Yeloglu, Web Developer, Faculty of Computer Science, Dalhousie University, 2012
- Marek Lipczak, Web Developer, Faculty of Computer Science, Dalhousie University, 2012
- Farhan Jamal Khan, Web Developer, Faculty of Computer Science, Dalhousie University, 2012
- Ishan Patel, Web Developer, Faculty of Computer Science, Dalhousie University, 2012
- Jennifer Yurchak, Graduate RA, School of Information Management, Dalhousie University, 2012
- Shali Liu, Graduate RA, Faculty of Computer Science, Dalhousie University, 2011-2013
- Melissa Anez, Graduate RA, School of Information Management, Dalhousie University, 2011-2012
- Melissa Goertzen, Graduate RA, School of Information Management, Dalhousie University, 2011-2012
- Jamiur Rahman, Graduate RA, Faculty of Computer Science, Dalhousie University, 2011-2012
- Conrad Ng, Graduate RA, School of Information Management, Dalhousie University, 2011-2012
- Jake Salcedo, Graduate RA, Faculty of Computer Science, E-Commerce, Dalhousie University, 2011
- Sreejata Chatterjee, Graduate RA, Faculty of Computer Science, Dalhousie University, 2010-2013
- Thomas Robbins, Graduate RA, Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology, 2010-2013
- Amanda Wilk, Graduate RA, School of Information Management, Dalhousie University, 2010-2011
- Kathleen Staves, Graduate RA, School of Information Management, Dalhousie University, 2010-2011
- Yen Le, Graduate RA, Faculty of Computer Science, E-Commerce, Dalhousie University, 2010-2011
- Anton Rosen, Undergraduate RA, Faculty of Computer Science, Dalhousie University, 2010-2011
- Mouhcine Aitounejjar, Undergraduate RA, Faculty of Computer Science, Dalhousie University, 2010-2011
- Lingyun (Peter) Ye, Graduate RA, Faculty of Science, Mathematics and Statistics, Dalhousie University, 2010-2011
- Geoffrey Allen, Graduate RA, School of Information Management, Dalhousie University, 2010
- Sophie Doiron, Graduate RA, School of Information Management, Dalhousie University, 2010
- Dana Echtner, Graduate RA, School of Information Management, Dalhousie University, 2010
- Justin Wong, Undergraduate RA, Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering, University of Toronto, 2009-2010
2016-2020 Visiting Scholars and Research Projects
- Anne Suphan, Research Associate at the Institute for Law and Social Sciences at the University of Hohenheim, Germany. Collaborative project: Privacy protection and boundary management when “#sharenting” on Instagram.
- Bree McEwan, Associate Professor, Communication, DePaul University, USA. Collaborative project: Developing measures to assess the “strength of weak ties” on Reddit.
- Celine Yunya Song, Assistant Professor, Department of Journalism, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong. Collaborative project: A Longitudinal Study of Discussion Networks on Weibo: Polarized Opinions on Genetically Modified Food.
- Felipe Bonow Soares, PhD candidate, the Universidade Federal de Pelotas, Brazil. Collaborative project: Toxic Interactions and Political Engagement on Twitter.
- Irfan Chaudhry, PhD candidate, Department of Sociology, University of Alberta, Canada. Collaborative project: Examining discourses of racism and xenophobia on Facebook.
- Hazel Kwon, Assistant Professor, School of Social & Behavioral Sciences, Arizona State University, USA. Collaborative project: Swearing Contagion on YouTube.
- Laurie Bonnici, Associate Professor, University of Alabama, USA. Collaborative project: Online communities of pet owners on Reddit.
- Lina M. Gomez Vasquez, Assistant Professor, the School of Social and Human Sciences, Universidad del Este, Puerto Rico. Collaborative project: How #hcsm healthcare community uses Instagram and Twitter to communicate with each other and with the public.
- Mark Klein, Principal Research Scientist, MIT Center for Collective Intelligence and Research Scientist, University of Zurich. Collaborative project: Using Crowd-Sourced Deliberation Mapping to Enable More Powerful Social Media Analytics.
- Melodie Yun-Ju Song, PhD candidate, Health Policy, McMaster University. Collaborative project: Studying vaccine sentiment on YouTube.
- Olga Boichak, Ph.D. candidate, the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University. Collaborative project: Examining the Ukrainian diaspora on Facebook.
- Raquel Recuero, Associate Professor, the Communication and Linguistics Department at Universidade Federal de Pelotas, Brazil. Collaborative project: Examining fake news, filter bubbles and political conversations during the 2018 Brazilian Presidential election.
- Staci Zavattaro, Associate Professor, College of Health and Public Affairs, University of Central Florida, USA. Collaborative project: University Use of Social Media: Communicating the Brand Identity.