In the Social Algorithms research group, we study how algorithmic systems in daily life shape access, agency, and opportunity—often in ways that are invisible to users and communities. We aim to move beyond the illusions of control and safety toward societal infrastructures that offer robust contestability and evidenced safety to bolster user autonomy.
“People often blame themselves,” as Dr. Karahalios has said, “when systems don’t behave as expected.” We challenge this dynamic by exploring how algorithms influence and adapt to their users and how users in turn interpret and resist the resulting outcomes.
We work with communities—online, local, and institutional—to uncover the hidden governance embedded in sociotechnical systems: the defaults, decisions, and designs that structure behavior and outcomes. Our research ranges from algorithmic audits and visualization to community-centered participatory design and human-AI dynamics. We design studies and build novel systems to conceptualize alternate futures that empower users to understand, interrogate, and reconfigure the systems that affect them.