Laura Kurek
About Me
I am a Ph.D. candidate advised by Ceren Budak and Eric Gilbert at the University of Michigan in the School of Information. I research d/misinformation and other types of manipulation on the internet using both quantitative and qualitative methods.
Prior to starting my Ph.D., I worked in industry for several years as a data science specialist at Accenture Federal Services. In 2017, I spent a year in the Ural Mountains on a Fulbright Scholarship.
Research interests: D/misinformation, social computing, computational social science
Education
- Ph.D. in Information, School of Information, University of Michigan, 2027 (expected)
- B.S. in Science, Technology, & International Affairs, Georgetown University, 2016
Publications
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Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction (CSCW 2025)
Other writings:
- Kurek, L., Harper, T., Bhatia, A., & Marechal, N. (2024). Rules of the Road: Political Advertising on Social Media in the 2024 U.S. Election. Center for Democracy & Technology.
Updates
- Oct 2024: Defended and passed the field preliminary milestone
- June-Aug 2024: Tech policy internship at the Center for Democracy and Technology
- May 2024: Workshop paper accepted to Wiki Workshop ‘24, Knowledge Integrity track
- April 2024: Workshop paper accepted to ICWSM ‘24, Digital Disinfo workshop
- February 2024: Defended and passed the pre-candancy milestone
- October 2023: Attended CSCW ‘23 in Minneapolis
- September 2023: Virtually attended the EU Joint Research Center Disinformation Workshop
- July 2023: Attended ACL ‘23 in Toronto
- May 2023: Pre-candidacy paper proposal approved
- August 2022: Started a Ph.D. in Information at the University of Michigan