Richard Canevez, recipient of the prestigious Computing Innovation Fellowship (CIFellows), has joined the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa College of Social Sciences as a postdoctoral researcher. At UH Mānoa, Canevez will lead a study to examine the connection between communication technologies and the de-escalation of violence in social movements.
“Recent social movement events illustrated the essential differences between violent and nonviolent movements. Movements that maintain a nonviolent core need to think creatively about their tools and practices, especially when faced with violence themselves,” said Canevez, one of 59 researchers selected as a 2020 CIFellows recipient from among 550 applicants worldwide.
The fellowship is awarded by the Computing Research Association (CRA) and its Computing Community Consortium (CCC) as part of the Computing Innovation Fellows 2020 program. Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the program aims to address career disruptions experienced by recent doctoral graduates in computing due to COVID-19. The 2020 CIFellows program was modeled after similar NSF-funded efforts by the CRA and CCC in 2009, 2010 and 2011, which funded 127 fellows following the 2008 recession.
Canevez, a recent PhD graduate of the College of Information Sciences and Technology at Penn State University, is under the mentorship of Jenifer Sunrise Winter, a professor in the School of Communications and co-director of the Pacific Information and Communications Technology for Development Collaborative.
“The CIFellows program highlights the interdisciplinary research and collaboration between the social sciences and computing,” said Winter. “Richard’s research intersects well with the needs of our campus and community. By combining his expertise in computer science and technology with disciplines such as communication and peace studies to address pressing social issues, he will be a major asset to our communication programs, the college and the university.”
This work is an example of UH Mānoa’s goal of Excellence in Research: Advancing the Research and Creative Work Enterprise (PDF), one of four goals identified in the 2015–25 Strategic Plan (PDF), updated in December 2020.
