Joseph Seering

I received a PhD in HCI from Carnegie Mellon in 2020 and I am now a postdoc in the HCI Group in the Stanford CS Department. I am also an affiliated fellow at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence as well as at the Yale University Justice Collaboratory.

I am honored to have been named a CCC and CRA Computing Innovation Fellow for 2021.

Current Projects

In my work I explore community dynamics in online spaces, focusing on ways in which self-governance behaviors can be strengthened. To date, I have primarily explored moderation strategies, but have also done work on introduction of newcomers and methods for increasing engagement of members. In my research I begin with empirical analyses to understand community behaviors and challenges and then translate the findings of this research into design and development of new systems. Through my work, I aim to facilitate the design of more welcoming, tolerant, and supportive communities online.

In my study of community moderation practices with Michael Bernstein, I am examining the ways in which small informal communities develop methods for managing behavior of community members. We are currently developing tools to help connect communities on Discord and to help users carry reputation signals between communities without compromising their privacy.

I am also currently developing interventions to address mis/disinformation on WhatsApp and other encrypted communication apps in collaboration with Raagavi Ragothaman, Jeff Hancock, and Michael Bernstein. This work is funded by a 2021 Computing Innovation Fellow award from the Computing Research Academy and Computing Community Consortium, as well as a David and Helen Gurley Brown Institute for Media Innovation Magic Grant.

In a new line of work, I have begun exploring the ways in which moderators of LGBTQ+ spaces on Discord and Twitch respond to hate and harassment with the goal of highlighting their labor practices and the impact that hate has on their communities.

I also maintain a list of all the peer-reviewed research I have found that focuses primarily on Twitch, which can be found here.