bio

My name is Alex Halavais (the “s” is silent) and I am a professor, researcher, and inventor, interested in ways of helping form communities of creativity, freedom, and justice. In particular, I help people to discover ways in which social media changes the nature of scholarship and learning, and allows for new forms of collaboration and self-government.

Beginning in the autumn of 2012, I am an associate professor of sociology at Arizona State University’s New College. Previously, I taught in the MS in Interactive Communications program at Quinnipiac University and directed a masters program in informatics at the University at Buffalo. I have worked in marketing for a large financial services firm, designed simulations for NASA, worked as a public school teacher in Japan, and in city government as a budget analyst and planner. I have published articles and book chapters on how social media relates to social change, as well as a book introducing the social role of search engines. I am president of the Association of Internet Researchers and serve as the Technical Director of the Digital Media and Learning Hub based at the University of California Humanities Research Institute. I 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.

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

My perfect day would be spent with my 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. My dream is to someday start a school for misfits and misfitting.

I currently live on Manhattan’s Upper West Side with my partner, Jamie, my sons, Jasper and Kai, and an English Mastiff named Finnegan, all of whom will be moving to the Valley of the Sun in the summer of 2012.

(Photo is by Robert Kirkham for the Buffalo News.)