Shawn Walker

Shawn Walker is an assistant professor in the School of Social and Behavioral Sciences in the New College at Arizona State University. He received his master's and doctoral degrees in information science from the University of Washington Information School and degrees in international studies, and liberal studies, with a focus on public policy and technology, from Northern Kentucky University.

His research focuses on two complementary areas: 1) new forms of political participation emerging on social media platforms and 2) the related challenges of collecting, analyzing, and working with data from these platforms. This work examines how new forms of political participation emerge on social media platforms through the analysis of social media posts surrounding social movements, protests, and elections. His work on social media methods addresses gaps in our understanding about social media data, collection methods, and the implications (ethics, representation, etc.) of using those methods.