Thomas Davidson

Thomas Davidson is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology. He received his Ph.D. from Cornell University in 2020. He studies far-right activism, populism, and online hate speech using various computational tools, including Bayesian statistics, machine learning, and large language models. In particular, his research considers how algorithms used on social media platforms can amplify and suppress different kinds of speech and the societal consequences of these sociotechnical arrangements. His work has been published in venues including Social Forces, Political Communication, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. He is also conducting research that explores the applications of new advances in artificial intelligence to social scientific research and is currently serving as a guest editor for a special issue on the topic in the journal Sociological Methods & Research.