Naniette Coleman

The data is clear. The proliferation of Deepfakes, fake news, fake datasets, and even fake academic journals makes it harder to trust the information we encounter online. While well-researched answers to questions with myriad citations are always out there, so are extra deliciously convincing conspiracy theory clickbait. Now more than ever, college faculty and students need opportunities to develop digital literacy skills that help us decipher and interrogate the maelstrom of information we encounter daily.

While you may not consider Wikipedia the exact right tool for this complex job, the late Erik Olin Wright, former President of the American Sociological Association was a fan. In 2011, he famously called Sociologists to action on  Wikipedia calling it a “real utopia,” that “embodied ideals of equality, open access, participation, and deliberation in a domination-free environment.”

In 2016, Naniette Coleman founded an innovative misinformation-combating approach which incorporates the ideals of discovery education and thanks to Wiki Education is accessible to any faculty member anywhere. In six short years, hundreds of affiliated students have led the rapid expansion of publicly available information on privacy, cybersecurity, and surveillance on Wikipedia using Coleman's approach. The privacy literacy program teaches students how to actively counter misinformation using the firewalled peer-reviewed articles already available at their fingertips. Lab affiliates have written or edited articles receiving over 241 million views using information unavailable to the public. All told, the Coleman Research Lab is one of the top three academic initiatives editing Wikipedia in the world and are composed of mostly women who are also people of color. And Coleman's research suggests that this model can be used with other topics. Imagine what you and your students could do in just one or two hours a week to actively elevate public discourse and stifle misinformation. This panel will introduce you to the work of the Coleman Research Lab via the experiences of its founder and its incredible students.

Naniette H. Coleman is a PhD candidate in Sociology at the University of California Berkeley and a multi-year UC-National Laboratory Graduate Fellow (Los Alamos). She is the only social scientist selected for this distinction in the history of the program.

Naniette’s work sits at the intersection of the sociology of culture and organizations and focuses on cybersecurity, surveillance, and privacy in the US context. Specifically, Naniette’s research examines how organizations assess risk, make decisions, and respond to data breaches and organizational compliance with state, federal, and international privacy laws.

Naniette is the recipient of numerous academic and professional service honors including the K. Patricia Cross Future Leaders Award from the American Association of Colleges & Universities, Berkeley Chancellor’s Award for Public Service, SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence, Alumni Public Sociology Award, Presidential Management Fellowship, and President's Life-time Volunteer Service Award. Current academic and professional service commitments include founding and leading the first Summer Institute in Computational Social Science at a Historically Black College of University, SICSS-Howard/Mathematica 2021 and sitting on the Board of Trustees for ScienceCounts.

Naniette holds a Master of Public Administration with a specialization in Democracy, Politics, and Institutions from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and both an M.A. in Economics and a B.A. in Communication from the University at Buffalo, SUNY. A non-traditional student, Naniette’s prior professional experience includes local, state, and federal service, as well as work for two international organizations, and two universities.

Maddy Chen is a fourth-year undergraduate student studying Computer Science at the University of California, Berkeley and minoring in Chinese Language. Since joining in Fall 2020, Maddy has served as a research assistant, project lead, and lab manager in the Interdisciplinary Research Group on Privacy. Maddy plans to pursue a career in software engineering after graduation, and in her free time, enjoys playing volleyball and crocheting.

Frankie Colosimo is currently a third year medical student at the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine in Las Vegas, Nevada. She received her BA in Psychology from the University of California, Berkeley in 2020. Frankie began working for the Interdisciplinary Research Group on Privacy (IRGP) as a research assistant her sophomore year then as lab manager for the remainder of her time at University of California, Berkeley. She maintains close ties to the lab through various writing projects focused on medical adjacent topics. In her limited free time, Frankie enjoys reading, gardening, and collecting vinyl albums. 

Savannah Cragin has been working with the CCCC Wikipedia Initiative since December 2020, bringing with her several years of Wikipedia editing and teaching experience. Savannah received her B.A. in Media Studies from the University of California, Berkeley (UCB) and is currently pursuing her MLIS at San Jose State University. She has worked alongside the Interdisciplinary Research Group on Privacy (IRGP) at the University of California, Berkeley to increase awareness of cybersecurity and surveillance issues on Wikipedia as both an Undergraduate Research Fellow and Wikipedia Coordinator. Additionally, she has worked with the American Cultures Center at UCB as a Wikipedia Peer Fellow to assist instructors with Wikipedia-based assignments. In her free time, Savannah enjoys hiking Northern California, solving crossword puzzles (or trying to), and cooking with friends. 

Ankita Janakiraman is a current senior at the University of California, Berkeley studying Data Science and Cognitive Science. She first joined the Interdisciplinary Research Group on Privacy in June 2020 and worked on the Privacy Literacy Project before joining the lab leadership team in August 2020 until June 2021. She is passionate about telling stories with data, making data-driven decisions, and creating more transparency with individuals about their data use. After graduating, she hopes to start her career in the tech industry and continue to pursue her interest in research. 

Ash Tan is a data analyst for digital strategy at Pew Research Center. He received a Master of Information and Data Science from the UC Berkeley School of Information, and received a Bachelor of Arts in Data Science and a Bachelor of Arts in Cognitive Science from UC Berkeley. Ash participated in the Interdisciplinary Research Group on Privacy (IRGP) first as a research assistant specializing in Neuroprivacy and subsequently as a data analyst for the IRGP leadership team. 

Ava Wu received her Bachelor of Arts in French and Molecular & Cell Biology from the University of California, Berkeley. Ava served as a research assistant and project lead in the Interdisciplinary Research Group on Privacy, focusing on bridging knowledge gaps across languages and cultures. She continues to support the research group, curating social media and video content for the Summer Institute in Computational Social Science-Howard/Mathematica. Outside of the lab, Ava is a paralegal at an international law firm with plans to pursue a J.D. In her free time, she is learning Modern Greek and Mandarin Chinese.