Research Intern - Social Media Collective

Research Internships at Microsoft provide a dynamic environment for research careers with a network of world-class research labs led by globally-recognized scientists and engineers. Our researchers and engineers pursue innovation in a range of scientific and technical disciplines to help solve complex challenges in diverse fields, including computing, healthcare, economics, and the environment.

Microsoft Research New England (MSRNE) is looking for advanced PhD students to join the Social Media Collective (SMC) for its 12-week Internship program. The Social Media Collective (in New England, we are Nancy Baym, Tarleton Gillespie, and Mary L. Gray, with current postdoc Niall Docherty) brings together empirical and critical perspectives to understand the political and cultural dynamics that underpin social media technologies. Learn more about us here. The Social Media Collective (SMC) is a network of social science and humanistic researchers, part of the Microsoft Research labs. It includes full-time researchers, postdocs, interns, and visitors. Our primary purpose is to bring rich contextual understandings to analyses of the social and cultural dynamics that underpin social media technologies. Our work spans several disciplines: anthropology, communication, economics, gender and sexuality studies, information, law, media studies, science & technology studies, and sociology.

The Social Media Collective is comprised of full-time researchers, postdocs, visiting faculty, Ph.D. interns, and research assistants. Current projects in New England include:

• How do people build social capital with each other in remote and hybrid work, and how do those processes facilitate or harm inclusion? (Nancy Baym)
• How do discourses and designs of ideal social media habits function within apparatuses of platform capitalism? (Niall Docherty)
• How do social media platforms, through algorithmic design and content policies, serve as custodians of public discourse? (Tarleton Gillespie)
• What are the cultural, political, and ethical implications of on-demand platform economies as new forms and sites of semi-automated, globally distributed, digital labor? (Mary L. Gray)

For more information about the Social Media Collective, and a list of past interns, visit the About page of our blog. 

NOTE: Make sure to check out the SMC blog for a separate call from the indefatigable danah boyd, our fellow SMC'er in the NYC lab. For a complete list of all permanent researchers and current postdocs based at the New England lab, see: http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/labs/newengland/people/bios.aspx