University of Michigan School of Information
Cassidy Pyle
Biography
Cassidy Pyle is a rising fourth year Ph.D. student working with Dr. Nicole Ellison and Dr. Nazanin Andalibi. Broadly, her research examines how multiply stigmatized communities use social media platforms and, increasingly, algorithmic systems to access social support, information, and educational/career opportunities.
Previously, she has examined how LGBTQ+ people who experience pregnancy loss make decisions about whether to and how to share these difficult experiences on non-anonymous social media platforms, and how multiply marginalized social media users think about vulnerability on and via social media. Currently, she is working with first-generation, low-income students to understand how they use social media in the college application and selection processes and how social media can be better designed to meet their needs in this pivotal time. She is also working to understand how students perceive college admissions as an algorithmic system.
She has published at CHI, CSCW, Social Media + Society, and Current Opinion in Psychology, and has presented at ICA, CRA-WP, and the Human Computer Interaction Consortium.
Pronouns
she/her
Areas of interest
social media; algorithms; social support; college access; identity; stigma
Honors & Awards
Best Paper Award - CHI 2021
Rackham Merit Fellowship
Education
B.A., University of California, Santa Barbara -- Communication, Film & Media Studies, Feminist Studies