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Truth in the Public Sphere

The theme, “Truth in the Public Sphere,” encompasses a research and programming focus that challenges the widespread proliferation of “alternative facts” (aka lies), disinformation, and unreliable sources of information. This scholarship also challenges the powerful forces in society that stand to gain political and economic power from continuously propagating falsehoods. It exposes both the lies and the liars. Scholars working on this theme model how to use empirical evidence and scientific principles of knowledge production to gain an understanding of the truth (reality) and how to identify the untruths that seek to run.


Research Leads


safiya noble

Safiya Noble

Dr. Safiya U. Noble’s interdisciplinary research focuses on the internet and its impact on society and sheds light on the ways in which online platforms can affect the accuracy and reliability of information that is available to the public. Her research has shown that these platforms can perpetuate biases and stereotypes, which can in turn shape people’s perceptions of the world around them. This can have negative consequences for public discourse and decision-making, as well as for the ability of individuals to access accurate and trustworthy information. By calling attention to these issues, Noble’s research contributes to a broader conversation about the importance of transparency, diversity, and ethical considerations in the development and use of digital technologies. Noble received the MacArthur Foundation “Genius Award” in 2021. She serves as a research associate at the Oxford Internet Institute and commissioner of the Oxford Commission on AI & Good Governance.




Sarah Roberts

Sarah T. Roberts, Ph.D. is an associate professor at UCLA (Gender Studies, Information Studies, Labor Studies), specializing in Internet and social media policy, infrastructure, politics and culture, and the intersection of media, technology and society. She is the faculty director and co-founder of the UCLA Center for Critical Internet Inquiry (C2i2), co-director of the Minderoo Initiative on Technology & Power, and a research associate of the Oxford Internet Institute. Informed by feminist Science and Technology Studies perspectives, Roberts is keenly interested in the way power, geopolitics and economics play out on and via the internet, reproducing, reifying and exacerbating global inequities and social injustice. Her book, Behind the Screen: Content Moderation in the Shadows of Social Media (Yale University Press, 2019), was released in paperback with a new preface in 2021, and in translation in French (2020) and in Mandarin (2023). She can be seen in several feature-length documentaries, including The Cleaners (2018), for which her work served as inspiration.



Truth in the Public Sphere Fellows

Magally ‘Maga’ Miranda Alcázar

Magally ‘Maga’ Miranda Alcázar (she/her) is a writer, researcher, educator and organizer based in Los Angeles. She is a PhD candidate in Chicana/o and Central American Studies at UCLA. Her work lies at the intersection of race, gender, labor, immigration and technology studies. Her research has been supported by the the Center for Critical Internet Inquiry, the Eugene Cota-Robles Fellowship, the NASEM Ford Predoctoral Fellowship, and the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment.

Maga was born and raised in Boyle Heights to immigrant parents from Michoacán and CDMX. She attended Pasadena City College and earned a B.A. from UC Santa Cruz with a double major in Feminist Studies (law, policy and social change emphasis) and Community Studies (economic justice emphasis) where she graduated magna cum laude in 2015.

Maga has written for Aztlán, The Nation, Verso, and New Left Review and the International Journal of Communication.

Nashra Mahmood

Nashra Mahmood is a 4th year doctoral student whose current research interests lie in theories of Affect, feminist critiques of ethno-nationalism, and critical media studies. Their previous research focused on feminized labor and unionization in North India’s informal economy. Their dissertation project is studying how media manipulation and communalist [dis]information in Indian media post-October 2019 has reconstituted national belonging. Nashra holds a BA in Economics and Gender Studies and a MA in Gender Studies.

Zizi Li

Zizi Li is an educator and researcher of media studies and digital cultures, with a special attention to (im)material labor and infrastructure via the study of influencer media. She inquires the relationships between media and extraction concerning the layered extraction of natural / human resources and racialized / gendered labor required by the operation of digital economy. Currently Zizi is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Film, Television and Digital Media at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Her dissertation on influencer ecosystem uses fashion/lifestyle influencers and related vernacular social media genre / content (such as closet declutter and unboxing videos) to elucidate the connections between digital/media industries and commodity chains/networks. Zizi is trained in film studies, cultural studies, critical digital studies, feminist media studies / praxis, and transnational media. Her research and pedagogy are committed to the unpacking of entangled colonialisms as well as the building of transnational solidarity praxis and abolitionist decolonial care.

Read their full bios on our blog. 

Jessica Cattelino

Anthropology

“The Truth about LA’s Indigenous Waters”

Ananda Marin (Co-PI)

Education and American Indian Studies

“The Truth about LA’s Indigenous Waters”

Erin Debenport

Anthropology

“Gender, Revelation, and the Public Sphere: (Un)reliable Narrators, (Un)responsive Audiences, and the Power of Online Disclosures”

Ju Hui Judy Han

Gender Studies

“Transforming Feminist Activisms in Korea and the Korea Diaspora”

Gina Kim

Film, Television and Digital Media

“America Town”

Thu-huong Nguyen-vo

Asian Languages and Cultures and Asian American Studies

“Almost Futures: Vietnamese and Refugee Elusion of Humanist Sovereignty”

Ellen Scott

Film and Television

“Bitter Ironies, Tender Hopes: Black Women’s Film Criticism, Television Reflections and Media Activism”

Paula Tavrow

Community Health Sciences

“Crisis Pregnancy Centers in the United States: Effects of Gender and Race/Ethnicity on (Mis)information and Advice Given”

Jasmine Nadua Trice

Film and Digital Media

“Parallel Practices: Southeast Asian Film in the Capitalocene”



Research News

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2023-2024 Barbra Streisand Fellowship Recipients

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