Hi. My name is Alexander Hanna. I'm a PhD student in sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. My advisor is Pamela Oliver.

Substantively, I’m interested in social movements, social media, and the Middle East. Methodologically, I’m interested in social networks and textual analysis. I examine how social movement actors use social media in authoritarian state contexts and processes of mobilization in which the media help facilitate activism. My master's thesis looks into the genesis of the the 6th of April Youth Movement. My dissertation focuses on the potential of solving the dilemma of collective action via social media in the 2011 Egyptian Revolution.

I am also currently the student co-leader of the Social Media and Democracy group, advised by Dhavan Shah, Young Mie Kim, and Chris Wells. Right now we're working on a project surrounding political communication on Twitter during the 2012 elections.