Ashwin Rajadesingan

Assistant Professor, Department of Communication Studies, UT Austin

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I am a social media researcher focused on how online spaces can foster spirited, engaging political discussions and contribute to building a vibrant deliberative democracy. I employ large-scale computational methods to inform the (re)design of online spaces that support quality online political interactions.

At UT, I’m an Assistant Professor at the Department of Communication Studies, Moody College of Communication. I am a faculty associate at the Center for Media Engagement and also have a courtesy appointment at the Information School. I hold a PhD in Information from the University of Michigan, an MS from Arizona State and a BTech from VIT University, India, both in Computer Science.

News

May 2025 Delighted to receive ACM WebSci’s Best paper award (honorable mention) this year for our paper on personal narratives! Congrats Tejasvi, our lead author!
Mar 2025 🚨Come work with me!🚨 I am looking to hire a fulltime predoctoral fellow with solid programming/ML experience to work with me on projects related to media and politics. Would be ideal for someone interested in conducting research and planning to apply to PhD programs in the next cycle. More details here. Please reach out at arajades@utexas.edu!
Mar 2025 Delighted to receive WSDM’s test-of-time award this year for our 2015 paper on sarcasm detection which was based on my Master’s thesis!
Feb 2025 We have two papers accepted at Web Sci’25, one on conflict news framing in Indian Elections news and the other on the link between personal narratives and inclusion in political discussions. Both projects were led by Tejasvi Chebrolu, a visiting master’s student at UT from IIIT Hyderabad!