Many good stories start in medias res, so I'll begin with where I am now before returning to the beginning.
I'm currently a third-year doctoral student in the School of Information at the University of Michigan. I'm also a fellow in the National Science Foundation IGERT program on Socio-Technical Infrastructure of Electronic Transactions (STIET).
In general, my research focuses on sociotechnical questions related to
I currently have one line of research wrapping up that I will return to after the dissertation is finished, and another line under development. More details can be found in the Research section
Now, on to the backstory...
I attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison for my undergraduate education. It was a fantastic experience, and I came out of it with a bachelor's degree in Slavic Languages and Literature. I also worked as a research assistant at the University of Wisconsin Center for Neuroscience.
Fast forward several years, and I came to realize that if I wanted a career as an academic, I should get on track and go for a graduate degree. The plan at the time was to concentrate on Human-Computer Interaction, so the University of Michigan School of Information was the natural choice. I was accepted into the Master of Science in Information program, and completed it in 2004. Along the way, I also entered the masters program in statistics and the certificate programs in the Center for the Study of Complex Systems and the program in Science, Technology, & Society.
I'm aiming to complete the PhD in spring or summer of 2008. The goal is to become a professor at a large research institution. Ideally, I'd like to be at a university with a strong dedication to interdisciplinary and boundary-crossing research initiatives, basing myself in an information school, business school, or STS (Science and Technology Studies) program.