Ashwin Rajadesingan
Assistant Professor, Department of Communication Studies, UT Austin
I am a social media and political communication 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
| Jul 2026 | New paper out in Political Communication: Common Identities and Political Talk: Evaluating Cross-Cutting Political Discussions in Sports Communities on Reddit. |
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| Jul 2026 | New paper out in New Media & Society with Natalie Jomini Stroud, Tamar Wilner, and Moo Sun Kim: A Cross-Country Examination of Normative Expectations of Social Media Platforms. |
| Jul 2026 | New paper out in Social Media + Society with Tejasvi Chebrolu: Divisive or Bridging? Personal Stories in Cross-Cutting Political Discussions on Reddit. |
| May 2026 | New paper out in ICWSM: Shifting Gatekeeping Practices and Audience Engagement Under AI-Assisted Comment Moderation. |
| Jun 2025 | Delighted to receive a Top Paper Award at ICA’s computational methods division for our work on personal narratives in cross-partisan online interactions. Congrats Tejasvi, my co-author on this project! |