The Anti-Defamation League Center for Technology and Society has announced that University of Michigan School of Information associate professor Libby Hemphill is one of four leading academics selected for its second class of Belfer Fellows. 

Hemphill, who serves as the director of the Resource Center for Minority Data at the U-M Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), studies politicians, non-profit organizations and television fans to understand how people use social media for both harassment and social change. 

Her project will focus on using state-of-the-art machine learning approaches to automatically detect new terms and phrases being used by white supremacists online.

“The fellowship is an opportunity for my computational work to have real, meaningful impact,” says Hemphill. “It means my models won't be simply algorithms or papers but tools for people and organizations working to counter hate while protecting free expression.”

The Belfer Fellowship program advances the Anti-Defamation League’s work by promoting cyber hate awareness and digital citizenship, as well as implementing projects that promote the positive role emergent technologies can play in protecting civil rights, freedom of speech and democratic values. 

“I am proud our fellowship continues to attract leaders in their respective fields who are dedicated to fighting cyber hate with new ideas and technologies,” says Jonathan Greenblatt, Anti-Defamation League CEO. “We are looking forward to partnering with these fellows on their new research projects and working toward our collective goals by presenting novel solutions to influence and inform steps forward in the online space.”

- Jessica Webster, UMSI PR Specialist