Mission and Vision

The Critical Internet Studies Institute develops cutting-edge research and educational programs to advance public knowledge of emerging technologies and the paradoxes of innovation.

Led by co-directors Dr. Chris Gilliard and Dr. Joan Donovan, CISI fosters knowledge mobilization with the goal of turning intelligence into action. We bridge exceptional research collaborators to creative engagement programs that help the public–and those who serve them–combat misinformation-at-scale, ensure community safety and privacy, and build capacity for a “public interest internet.”

It’s no longer enough to point out what is wrong with technology and hope the message reaches key stakeholders. We must also build capacity across sectors – from journalism, civil society, academia, technology, to policymaking – so that we can develop institutional resilience independent of industry, and bring about the web we deserve. Our goal is to meet practitioners where they are, understand their pain points, and provide preparation and inspiration for lasting institutional resilience.

Chris Gilliard, PhD

  • Chris Gilliard, PhD, is a writer, professor, and speaker whose scholarship examines digital privacy, surveillance, and the intersections of race, class, and technology. He was recently a JustTech Fellow of the Social Science Research Council, and Visiting Research Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School Shorenstein Center. Dr. Gilliard is a member of the UCLA Center for Critical Internet Inquiry Scholars Council and Surveillance Technology Oversight Project community advisory board. His book Luxury Surveillance is forthcoming from MIT Press in 2025. 

    Dr. Gillard’s recent work posits that while minoritized and poor people have the greatest vulnerability to intrusive and experimental forms of surveillance, privileged people are not as exempt from probing sensors as they imagine themselves to be. In fact, their embrace of luxury surveillance technologies expands the surveillant gaze far beyond the eyes of the state. His writing traverses the involuntary imposition of carceral technologies on Black Detroit and public school classrooms, to the willing middle class embrace of high status gadgets that encourages a surveillant gaze far beyond the eyes of the state.

Joan Donovan, PhD

  • Joan Donovan, PhD, is an award-winning sociologist and Assistant Professor of Journalism and Emerging Media Studies at Boston University. She is coauthor of Meme Wars: The Untold Story of the Online Battles Upending Democracy in America. Dr. Donovan’s research focuses on media manipulation and democracy. Her work has been showcased in various outlets such as NPR, The New York Times, MIT Technology Review and more. She is the former Research Director of Harvard University’s Shorenstein Center on Media Politics and Public Policy. 

    She also co-created the beaver emoji. 🦫

    Contact: Joan@publicinterestinter.net

    On social media as BostonJoan

Sam Hinds

  • Sam Hinds serves on the Advisory Board of Georgetown Law's Center on Privacy and Technology and was most recently Director of Communications at Harvard University's Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society. She is a strategist, writer, and speaker with an equal track record building mission-driven institutions and expert networks. As Director of Creative Strategy at Data & Society Research Institute, Sam launched foundational scholarly work on disinformation and directed immersive off-the-record expert spaces to tackle harms from algorithmic bias, surveillance, and networked hate. At the International Center for Transitional Justice, she supported policymaker and civil society outreach for projects in post-genocide accountability and mechanisms of redress for countries emerging from authoritarian rule. Fluent in multiple disciplines and sectors, she works with leaders to hone a coherent vision for teams and translate complex insights into resonant frames and actionable cues for the public.

Rick Valenzuela

  • Rick Valenzuela is a cybersecurity analyst specializing in log data analytics and threat detection engineering. At CISI, he is a senior data analyst working on creating the Internet Observatory to monitor social media chatter. Before that he was a Nieman affiliate at Harvard University, concentrating his classes in cybersecurity, disinformation, crisis management, and policy. In Vienna, Austria, he led a team of threat detection engineers maintaining the IT and information security monitoring and alerting for critical infrastructure and financial institutions. Previously he was a journalist, reporting and editing in China, Southeast Asia, West Africa and Europe, and he pivoted careers after teaching digital security workshops to fellow foreign correspondents with the press club in Cambodia, where he was president. His work has appeared with Agence France-Presse, Australia's ABC, Switzerland’s SRF, Voice of America, BBC and the Guardian. Since then he's advised reporters and news organizations on cybersecurity.

Stephen C. Rea

  • Stephen C. “Stevie” Rea is an anthropologist specializing in digital culture. At CISI, he leads the networked incitement project, monitoring “voter vigilante” groups’ coordination within and across social media platforms. Before joining CISI, Stevie worked in academia and civil society, teaching and researching about digital culture and advocating for targets of online hate and harassment. His work has been published in journals including American Anthropologist, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, and Law & Policy, and in edited volumes, most recently a co-authored chapter in Social Processes of Online Hate. Before working in the digital extremism space, Stevie’s research covered online gaming in South Korea, digital financial inclusion in the Global South, credit unions and payments technologies in the United States, and the legal implications of machine learning and artificial intelligence integrations with institutional processes. He received his PhD in Anthropology from the University of California, Irvine in 2015, and also has a Master of Arts in Social Sciences from the University of Chicago (2005) and a Bachelor of Arts in Cross-Cultural Relations from Simon’s Rock College of Bard (2003).

Dan Shea

  • Dan Shea has 10 years’ experience in non-profit management as the former founder and director of Brain Arts Organization, which published the Boston Compass newspaper and the Boston Hassle website, supporting arts and culture throughout the city. Dan has hosted events in the Boston music and arts scene for over 25 years and continues to foster community.

    Contact: info@publicinterestinter.net

Statement of Independence

The Critical Internet Studies Institute develops cutting-edge research and educational programs to advance public knowledge of emerging technologies and the paradoxes of innovation. Our research projects, and the direction of our programming and commentary, are governed by CISI leadership. As an independent organization with Aspiration Tech, a fiscal sponsor structured as a 501c3, we are funded entirely by charitable giving. As an independent organization specifically concerned with understanding issues of agency and power in the technology and public sectors, we require that all donors to CISI support the values of integrity, independence, and equity in our work.