Digital Work Group

The Digital Work Group focuses on the intersection of changes in work, information technologies, and new ways of organizing.

Our group’s research focuses on the roles and functions of information and communication technologies and the institutional contexts in which these systems are embedded. Our interest is to the ways in which the way work is organized is evolving as jobs become more project-based, as the roles of digital technologies expand from supporting workers to structuring work, and the ways in which working lives are increasingly informated.

Our multidisciplinary approach draws a range of methods and theories from organizational studies, sociology, science and technology studies (STS), labor economics, Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), and others.

The Digital Work group involves undergraduate students, graduate students, and faculty from both Syracuse University’s iSchool and Skidmore College.

Research Staff

Bernadette Berner

Bernadette Berner

Bernadette Berner is a Sophomore at Skidmore College and is planning to major in Management and Business with a minor in Economics. Bernadette joined the Digital Work research team in September 2021. Bernadette is interested in technology’s effects on labor markets. 

Lauren Coop is a Sophomore at Syracuse University. She joined the Digital Work research team in September 2022. 

Photo of Michael Dunn

Mike is an Assistant Professor at Skidmore College’s Department of Management and Business. His education began with an MBA, shifting to the study of work and employment, including studies of contingent work and platform work, during his doctorate (in sociology) at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.  His work is focused on issues at the confluence of technology and labor market outcomes with a specific emphasis on precarious and nonstandard work arrangements.   His work is theoretically informed by the sociology of work, and organizations and labor studies. In the previous decade Dunn has worked on five NIH-funded efforts focused on precarious and underserved worker populations (i.e. tribal workers, day laborers, ex-offenders). From 2015-2017, Dunn was a visiting researcher at the Bureau of Labor Statistics. His methodological orientation is primarily qualitative and has field-based research experience with rideshare/transportation, delivery/task, crowdwork, and online freelance platforms.

Rebecca Farrell

Rebecca Farrell

Rebecca is a Junior at Syracuse University majoring in Applied Mathematics and Neuroscience in the College of Arts and Sciences and minoring in Data Analytics in the School of Information Studies. Rebecca joined the Digital Work Research team in September 2021. Rebecca is interested in the digitalization of workplace technologies. 

Pyeonghwa Kim

Pyeonghwa is a Ph.D. student at the Syracuse University iSchool. Her main research interests lie in the areas of information systems and worker-centered design. Her current interest revolves around the experience of technologies within organizational and personal contexts in relation to career navigation and work-life balance. She holds a B.A. in Media and Communications from Goldsmiths University of London and an M.S. in Digital Contents and Information Studies from Seoul National University.

Taylor L

Taylor is a sophomore at Syracuse University where she is majoring in Psychology and hopes to add marketing as a double major. She is also part of the Syracuse women’s rowing team. Taylor joined the research team in September 2022 and is looking forward to learning more about the workforce and labor trends.

Isabel Munoz

Isabel Munoz

Isabel is a PhD student at Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies (iSchool). She received her Master’s degree in Communication from the University of Wyoming. Isabel is focused on human-computer interaction (HCI), namely information systems design and technology-supported resilience research. Her specific interests are centered on supporting underrepresented populations and women in pursuing and succeeding in digital work. Connect with Isabel on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/iisabelmunoz/

Clea O'Neil

Clea O’Neil

Clea O’Neil is a Junior at Skidmore College majoring in Business-Political Science. Clea joined the Digital Work Research Team in September 2021. Her interests include worker flexibility and the recent changes in digital work.

Ellie Owen

Ellie Owen

Ellie Owen is a sophomore at Skidmore College majoring in Business. Ellie joined the Digital Work Research Team in September 2021. Currently, Ellie is focused on how Upwork ensures freelancers don’t go off-platform and how freelancers find work online.

 

Raghav Raheja

Raghav Raheja

Raghav is a first year PhD student at Syracuse University. He has a Master’s degree in Information Management and a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science. The primary areas of research Raghav aligns with is Artificial Intelligence, Decision Making and Psychology Studies. He specifically wants to understand the effect of information (from multiple sources) on decision making.

rancy-jean-phillipe

Jean-Phillipe Rancy

Jean-Philippe is currently a PhD candidate at the Syracuse University iSchool. His research areas currently lie in Human-Computer Interaction and Human Factors & Ergonomics and is interested in studying the phenomena surrounding human immersion with technology via visualization mechanisms, such as multimodal interaction. His passions are in visualization and immersion technology, cloud computing infrastructures, and technology infrastructure design. His goals include researching and developing new methods and technologies to enhance the quality of life, values, and efficiency regarding interaction between a human operator and machinery. He currently holds his Bachelors and Masters Degree in Information Systems from Le Moyne College.

Heba Salman headshot

Heba Salman

Heba Salman is a Skidmore College student, class of 2025, and is planning in majoring in Psychology and minoring in Business and Management. Heba joined the Digital Work Research team in December 2021. She is interested in how digitalization of the workplace impacts the interactions that freelance workers have with employers.

Steven Sawyer

Steve Sawyer

Steve is a professor at Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies. His research focuses on the changing forms of work and organizing enabled through uses of information and communication technologies. This is done through detailed field-based studies of freelance and nomadic workers, scientific collaborators, software developers, real estate agents, police officers, organizational technologists, and other information-intensive work settings.  He has also been active in advancing sociotechnical approaches to studying computing collectively known as social informatics. Sawyer’s work is published in a range of venues and supported by funds from the National Science Foundation, IBM and other public and private sponsors. Prior to returning to Syracuse in 2008, Steve was a founding faculty member of the Pennsylvania State University’s College of Information Sciences and Technology. He earned his Doctorate from Boston University in 1995.

Sofia is a sophomore at Skidmore College where she plans to major in Business and minor in Art History. She joined the research team in the fall of 2021. Sofia is learning how Upwork users brand their identities and progress in the app. 

Alumni

Bethanya Philipos ’22, LinkedIn

Brooke Stephenson ’22, LinkedIn

Gabby Vaccaro ’22, LinkedIn

Emily Michaels ’22, LinkedIn

Alaina Caruso ’21,  LinkedIn

Lily Moffly ’21, LinkedIn

Lily Feldman, LinkedIn

Haley Weller ’20, LinkedIn

Anjelica Torcivia ’18, LinkedIn

Emma Allen ’16, LinkedIn

Dr. Matt Willis, ’16 LinkedIn | Website

Get in touch.

Interested in working with the Digital Work Group? Email us any time.