Alexander Halavais

Alexander Halavais is a researcher, teacher, and innovator, interested in ways of helping form communities of creativity, freedom, and justice. In particular, he helps people to discover ways in which social media change the nature of scholarship and learning, and allow for new forms of collaboration and self-government.

He is an associate professor in the School of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Arizona State University’s New College. Previously, he taught in the MS in Interactive Communications program at Quinnipiac University and directed a masters program in informatics at the University at Buffalo (SUNY). He has published articles and book chapters on how social media relate to social change, as well as a book introducing the social role of search engines. He is president of the Association of Internet Researchers, works with the Digital Media and Learning Hub based at the University of California Humanities Research Institute, and is affiliated with the Learning Sciences Institute at ASU, among others. He received a Ph.D. in Communications from the University of Washington, and a B.A. in Political Science from the University of California at Irvine.

His current work includes research on the role of microcredentials in online publics, as well as work on a book tentatively titled Participatory Surveillance.

He has provided expert commentary for dozens of newspapers and magazines around the world, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Wired, The Times of London, and Asahi Shinbun, and has been a discussant on television and radio programs in the US, Canada, Australia, and Austria. His teaching was featured in Time, and interviews have been published in the Washington Post and Fast Company.

In addition to blogging at “a thaumaturgical compendium” and course related blogs, he tweets @halavais.

His perfect day would be spent with his family, and would include a trip to the movies, a great meal, a curvy drive in a fast car, and a cold margarita on a warm beach with a nice breeze and a good book. His dream is to someday start a school for misfits and misfitting.

He currently lives in the Valley of the Sun (greater Phoenix area) with his partner Jamie, his sons Jasper and Kai, and a Mastiff named Finnegan.

http://alex.halavais.net/bio