UMSI doctoral students begin working on research, both learning the methods and beginning their work on actual projects, from the first day they arrive. We believe our doctoral students are colleagues from the start. Our program is selective, so those students who join us are those we believe have the potential to do meaningful, in-depth scholarly study the moment they begin the program.
Our students conduct impressive research and enjoy high-profile opportunities for presentation and publication. These Faces of UMSI profiles will give you an introduction to your future colleagues and allow you to learn more about their accomplishments, research and philosophies. Read about their areas of interest and educational histories, what brought them to U-M (or what kept them here), their most valuable experiences and opportunities, and what they appreciate most about working at the forefront of the information field every day.
Scroll to the bottom of the page to learn about some of our PhD alumni. (Profiles are not routinely updated post-publication.)
Jane Im is on a mission to advance affirmative consent in tech.
Amina Abdu wants to see tech policy that does better by everyday citizens.
Tam Rayan is researching how Palestinians in Michigan engage in archival practices and memory work.
Jiaxin Pei is building a more equitable world by putting people at the heart of technology.
Ben Zhang is studying "infrastructural migration" at the intersection of identity, mobility, infrastructure, labor and the online platforms woven into people’s lives.
Carl C. Haynes is using information to improve students' learning.
Allison Tyler wants to make it easier for researchers to access information repositories, revolutionizing the way researchers reuse data.
Chanda Phelan is working to close socioeconomic gaps by studying how technological advancement is linked to career success.
Danaja Maldeniya is scouring Twitter for sentiments from survivors of natural disasters.
Edward L. Platt is studying how Wikipedians collaborate and improve articles.
Jeremy York is interested in how people make decisions about what to collect and preserve and how that informs our self- and worldview.
Jiaqi Ma is using machine learning models for unstructured data, specifically graphs and text data.
Lindsay Blackwell is looking at how parents and families use social media and what makes online communities supportive or abusive.
Linfeng Li wants to understand how individuals make decisions under the influence of the fundamental elements of modern society.
Mohamed Abbadi is researching prejudice against Muslim and Middle Eastern people in domestic and international settings, looking for ways to reduce its incidence.
Shriti Raj is devising ways to improve the design of informatics tools to help people manage chronic health conditions.
Zhewei Song conducts research in behavioral economics, a "young discipline" whose insights into information, psychology and sociology captured his interest as an undergraduate.
