Hi, I'm Nina

I study how visual media in problematic information (online hate, misinformation, scams) targets and/or denigrates individuals in vulerable, high-stakes situations (i.e. elections, betting, scams) or crises (migration) -- often by targetting sensitive personal identities (i.e. ethnicity, immigration status, or religion). I dig through a lot of the internet's odder (and sometimes problematic) visual content to inform ways that we can make the internet safer and less toxic. I often end up creating new methods, tools, and workflows during this, which I try to share so other researchers can safely and rigorously study the visual world.

I am a second year PhD student at the University of Washington in Human Centered Design and Engineering and the Center for an Informed Public. I am advised by Dr. Kate Starbird and graciously supported by an NSF and Herbold Fellowship.

Currently, I am working on analyzing visual tactics and rumors of what we found during our work on the US 2024 Presidential Election, developing visual research pipelines, analyzing anti-immigrant rhetoric, and thinking about the role of religion and prediction in online sensemaking. You can find me on email, X, or LinkedIn!

Note: As a researcher who studies scams sometimes people try to impersonate me to...scam. Recently, it appears to be concert tickets with my UW ID. Please note: I am not selling any concert tickets.