Hello!

I'm really excited to be pursuing my PhD in Information Science at the University of Washington iSchool in Seattle. I'm part of the DataLab and advised by Dr. Emma Spiro and co-advised by Dr. Kate Starbird.

I use mixed methods on social media data as a lens to study communities, knowledge, and social identities in digital spaces, particularly towards resilient information systems for marginalized groups. My research interests are primarily in synthesizing social network analysis and computational social science with critical theory and science and technology studies.
PhD student
Information Science
University of Washington
B.S. in HCDE
​​B.S. in Computer Science
University of Washington

Projects.

Gender in Online Networks
In this project advised by Dr. Spiro, I've been studying Reddit as a site for networked, crowd-driven discourse centering on gender. I use a networks approach to examine trajectories of discourse (such as feminism and "red pill") over time and digital space.
Gender and Quantification
This project, advised by Dr. Jaime Snyder, focuses on how transgender and non-binary identities are encoded in data. We are using a grounded design approach, which involves ethnographic and design methods.
Propaganda, Framing, and Race
​This is a multi-year project with Dr. Starbird's emCOMP lab studying #BlackLivesMatter and #BlueLivesMatter discourse on Twitter. Our work focused on the framing processes associated with the two hashtags and their vulnerabilities to disinformation campaigns.
Rumor Permutations and Worldview
My work here is part of a team effort led by Dr. Spiro and Dr. Starbird to study permutations of rumors.
My specific project aims to model worldviews using Twitter trace data as they relate to rumoring.

Publications.

> Google Scholar
> ORCID

Ahmer Arif, Leo Stewart, and Kate Starbird. Acting the Part: Examining Information Operations Within #BlackLivesMatter Discourse. Full paper, CSCW 2018.
> Coverage by the Daily Beast
> PDF
> Reproducibility Dataset

​​Leo Stewart, Ahmer Arif, A. Conrad Nied, Emma Spiro and Kate Starbird. Drawing the Lines of Contention: Networked Frame Contests within #BlackLivesMatter Discourse. Full paper, CSCW 2018. DOI: 10.1145/3134920
​> Blog Post
> PDF

Rachael Tatman, Leo Stewart, Amandalynne Paullada and Emma Spiro. Non-lexical Features Encode Political Affiliation on Twitter. Short paper, ACL 2017.
> PDF

Awards and Fellowships.

Honorable Mention: Social Data Science: Community-Centered Quantitative Methods for Trans Populations. National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (2020).
> Personal Statement
> Research Statement

Leo G. Stewart (Co-PI) and Emma S. Spiro (Co-PI). Community-Centric Quantitative Methods for Trans Populations. University of Washington Information School Strategic Research Award (2020).

Posters, Presentations, and Workshop Papers.

Leo G. Stewart and Emma S. Spiro. Towards a Networked Demography? A case study of gender countercultures on Reddit. Networks and Cultures Session, Sunbelt 2020.
> PDF

Leo G. Stewart and Emma S. Spiro. Tracing Networked Gender Discourse on Reddit. Gender and Social Networks Session, Sunbelt 2019.

Leo G. Stewart, Ahmer Arif and Kate Starbird. When Bad Actors Adhere to Group Norms. Workshop paper, CHI'18 Workshop: Understanding Bad Actors.
​> ​PDF

Leo G. Stewart, Ahmer Arif and Kate Starbird. Examining trolls and polarization with a retweet network. Workshop paper, MIS2 2018. DOI: 10.475/123_4
> Coverage by Mother Jones, The Atlantic, and Mashable 
​> ​PDF

Leo G. Stewart, Ahmer Arif, A. Conrad Nied, Emma S. Spiro and Kate Starbird. Exploring the Flow of #BlackLivesMatter Conversations in Response to Shooting Events Using a Shared Audience Network. Poster, UW Undergraduate Research Symposium 2017.

A. Conrad Nied, Leo G. Stewart, Emma S. Spiro and Kate Starbird. Alternative Narratives of Crisis Events: Communities and Social Botnets Engaged on Social Media. Poster, CSCW 2017.​

Skills.

​💻
Coding. Python, R, SQL, REST APIs, Java, and Android. 
📈
Data Analysis. Gephi, Shiny, Leaflet, Plotly, Tableau, Superset, and technical writing.
​📋
Qualitative Methods. 
Interviews, observational field studies, surveys, and qualitative coding.
⚙
Infrastructure. ​SourceTree, Git, Singularity, Docker, Parallel computing.

Background.


#⃣️
emCOMP Lab
Research Assistant
Summer 2017 - Summer 2018
I had the chance to work in Dr. Kate Starbird's lab, where I worked with other students to conduct mixed-methods analyses on social media data. I also learned to use Python, SQL, Gephi, REST APIs, and Tableau to collect, analyze, and present data.

​🌡️
Data Analysis @ Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation
​Summer 2017 - Summer 2018
I started at IHME as a research intern in Summer 2017 and continued as a data analyst after my internship. I built skills relating to data cleaning, cataloguing, and visualization and quantitative analysis, along with the accompanying infrastructure. I worked with datasets from a variety of sources using R, Python, and SQL. I also gained experience with large-scale, data-driven research and current topics at the intersection of global health and data science, particularly transparency and accuracy in modeling.

​
💬

​Mobile Software Developer Internship @ Motorola Solutions 
Summer 2016 & Summer 2015
I worked with a team to develop an Android component of a broader communication platform.
 ​​
⚡
​Interim Engineering Internship @ Qualcomm
​Summer 2014
I worked with a team to refine an internal Android application for communication with a broader Internet of Things network.
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