About Me

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I am an Assistant Professor of Emerging Media Studies at the College of Communication at Boston University. My scholarship takes a mixed methods approach that integrates computational methodologies and critical cultural theory to examine mainstreaming of supremacist ideology on the internet focused on race, gender, and religion. As a global, inferential, and multi-method critical computational social scientist, my work on social media and supremacist digital content integrates theory advancement, policy relevancy, and community activism.

I completed my Ph.D. in Communication at Georgia State University, as a presidential fellow in Transcultural Conflict and Violence Initiative (TCV), M.A. in Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University and B.A. in Near Eastern Studies and Economics at Cornell University. Previously I was a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Communication and Public Policy at Northwestern University, an Assistant Professor of Disinformation Studies at Clemson University, and one of the core faculty of John S. and James L. Knight Foundation’s funded Media Forensics Hub.

Research

Publications

2025
DOI

Enhancing LLMs for Governance with Human Oversight: Evaluating and Aligning LLMs on Expert Classification of Climate Misinformation for Detecting False or Misleading Claims about Climate Change

Mowafak Alhalam, Ayse D. Lokmanoglu, Sol Hart, & Erik C. Nisbet

AAAI 2025 Workshop on AI Governance: Alignment, Morality, and Law

2024
DOI

Heaven Holds a Place for Those Who Pray: Instrumentalizing Religion and Disinformation in the 2022 Brazilian and 2023 Turkish Presidential Campaigns

James Fitzgerald, Ayse D. Lokmanoglu, Deborah Salles, Marie Santini (All authors are first authors)

The International Journal of Press/Politics

2024
DOI

Performative State Building in the Digital World

Ayse D. Lokmanoglu

In N. Stremlau & C. V. Casabó, Technology and Governance Beyond the State. Taylor & Francis.

2024

Networks Approach: Trolls and Bots in Malaysia

Munira Mustaffa, Ayse D. Lokmanoglu

In S. L. Connaughton & S. Pukallus (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of conflict and peace communication. Routledge.

2024
DOI

The Backstory to “Swaying the Public”: A Design Chronicle of Election Forecast Visualizations

Fumeng Yang, Mandi Cai, Chloe Mortenson, Hoda Fakhari, Ayse D. Lokmanoglu, Nicholas Diakopoulos, Erik C. Nisbet, & Matthew Kay

IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (TVCG)

2024
DOI

Mediated Public Diplomacy and RT on Instagram: Role of International Institutions, Audience Engagement, and Online Account Bans

Carol Kay Winkler, Virginia Massignan, Kareem El Damanhoury, Mor Yachin, Ayse Deniz Lokmanoglu, and Kayla Denise McMinimy

Journalism Studies

2024
DOI

Signalling media professionalism: comparative social constructions of RT and CGTN

Kareem El Damanhoury, Carol Kay Winkler, Virginia Massignan, Keyu Alexander Chen, Katerina Papatheodorou, & Ayse Lokmanoglu

The Journal of International Communication

2024

The Economy and Public Diplomacy: An Analysis of RT’s Economic Content and Context on Facebook

Ayse D. Lokmanoglu, Carol K. Winkler, Kareem El Damanhoury, Virginia Massignan, Esteban Villa-Turek, and Keyu Alexander Chen

arXiv

2024

Transnational Network Dynamics of Problematic Information Diffusion

Esteban Villa-Turek, Rod Abhari, Erik C. Nisbet, Yu Xu, and Ayse Deniz Lokmanoglu

arXiv

2023
DOI

The (International) Politics of Content Takedowns: Theory, Practice, Ethics

James Fitzgerald & Ayse D. Lokmanoglu

Policy & Internet, Special Issue

2023
DOI

Swaying the Public? Impacts of Election Forecast Visualizations on Emotion, Trust, and Intention in the 2022 U.S. Midterms

Fumeng Yang, Mandi Cai, Chloe Mortenson, Hoda Fakhari, Ayse D. Lokmanoglu, Nicholas Diakopoulos, Erik C. Nisbet, & Matthew Kay

IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics (TVCG)

2023
DOI

Montevideo Convention and CGTN: Defining Statehood for Global Outreach

Keyu Alexander Chen, Virginia Massignan, Mor Yachin, Carol Winkler, & Ayse Deniz Lokmanoglu

International Journal of Communication

2023
DOI

Social Media Sentiment about COVID-19 Vaccination Predicts Vaccine Acceptance Among Peruvian Social Media Users the Next Day

Ayse D. Lokmanoglu, Erik C. Nisbet, Matthew T. Osborne, Joseph Tien, Sam Malloy, Lourdes Cueva Chacón, Esteban Villa Turek, & Rod Abhari

Vaccines

2023
DOI

Monetary Economics, Illicit Economies, and Legitimation: The Case of Islamic State

Ayse D. Lokmanoglu, & Alexandra Phelan

In The Rule Is for None but Allah: Islamist Approaches to Governance, edited by Joana Cook and Shiraz Maher, Oxford University Press.

2023
DOI

A Picture is Worth a Thousand (S)words: Classification and Diffusion of Memes on a Partisan Media Platform

Ayse D. Lokmanoglu, Mowafak Allaham, Rod Abhari, Chloe Mortenson, Esteban Villa Turek & GNET (Global Network on Extremism & Technology)

Global Network on Extremism & Terrorism (GNET)

2022
DOI

Gendered Radicalisation and “Everyday Practices”: An Analysis of Extreme Right and Islamic State Women-Only Forums

Yannick Veilleux-Lepage, Alexandra Phelan, & Ayse D. Lokmanoglu

European Journal of International Security

2022
DOI

Textual Messaging of ISIS’s al-Naba and the Context Drivers that Correspond to Strategic Changes

Ayse D. Lokmanoglu, Carol K. Winkler, Monerah Al Mahmoud, Kayla McMinimy, & Katherine Kountz

Studies in Conflict and Terrorism

2022
DOI

Weaponizing Reproduction Rights: A Mixed-Method Analysis of White Nationalists' Discussion of Abortions Online

Yotam Ophir, Meredith L. Pruden, Dror Walter, Ayse D. Lokmanoglu, Catherine Tebaldi, & Rui Wang

Information, Communication & Society

2022
DOI

Vaccine discourse in white nationalist online communication: A mixed-methods computational approach

Dror Walter, Yotam Ophir, Ayse D. Lokmanoglu, & Meredith L. Pruden

Social Science & Medicine

2022
DOI

ISIS Media and Troop Withdrawal Announcements: Visualizing Community and Resilience

Ayse D. Lokmanoglu, Carol K. Winkler, Kayla McMinimy, & Monerah Almahmoud

International Journal of Communication

2022

Birds of a Feather: A Comparative Analysis of White Supremacist and Violent Male Supremacist Discourses

Meredith L. Pruden, Ayse D. Lokmanoglu, Anne Peterscheck, & Yannick Veilleux-Lepage

In Far-Right Extremism in North America, edited by Barbara Perry, Jeff Gruenwald, and Ryan Scrivens, Palgrave.

2022
DOI

Vaccine Hesitancy Under the Magnifying Glass: A Systematic Review of the Uses and Misuses of an Increasingly Popular Construct

Yotam Ophir, Nathan Walter, Dror Walter, Raphaela M. Velho, Ayse D. Lokmanoglu, Meredith L. Pruden, & Emily A. Andrews

Health Communication

2022

White Nationalism, Stormfront, and the Extremist Politicisation of Science

Yotam Ophir, Meredith L. Pruden, Dror Walter, & Ayse D. Lokmanoglu

Global Network on Extremism & Terrorism (GNET) (blog)

2022

Online Platforms as Gendered Sites: Why We Should Pay Attention to Women-Only Forums

Alexandra Phelan, Ayse D. Lokmanoglu & Yannick Veilleux-Lepage

Global Network on Extremism & Terrorism (GNET) (blog)

2021
DOI

The Framing of COVID-19 in Italian Media and Its Relationship with Community Mobility: A Mixed-Method Approach

Yotam Ophir, Dror Walter, Daniel Arnon, Ayse D. Lokmanoglu, Michele Tizzoni, Joëlle Carota, Lorenzo D’Antiga, & Emanuele Nicastro

Journal of Health Communication

2021
DOI

Censoring Extremism: Influence of Online Restriction on Official Media Products of ISIS

Kayla McMinimy, Carol K. Winkler, Ayse D. Lokmanoglu, & Monerah Almahmoud

Terrorism and Political Violence

2021
DOI

Targeting Top Terrorists: Understanding Leadership Removal in Counterterrorism Strategy: By Bryan C Price, New York, Columbia University Press, 2019, 288 Pp., $32 (Paperback), ISBN 978-0-231-18823-4

Ayse D. Lokmanoglu

South African Journal of International Affairs

2021
DOI

Bibliography: Rebel Governance

David Teiner, Marta Furlan, Ayse D. Lokmanoglu, & Brody McDonald

Perspectives on Terrorism

2020
DOI

From Pawn to Knights: The Changing Role of Women’s Agency in Terrorism?

Mia Bloom, & Ayse D. Lokmanoglu

Studies in Conflict & Terrorism

2020
DOI

Coin as Imagined Sovereignty: A Rhetorical Analysis of Coins as a Transhistorical Artifact and an Ideograph in Islamic State’s Communication

Ayse D. Lokmanoglu

Studies in Conflict & Terrorism

2020

Conducting Field Work in a Virtual Space, Exploring ISIS’ Encrypted Messaging on Telegram

Mia Bloom, & Ayse D. Lokmanoglu

In Stories from the Field A Guide to Navigating Fieldwork in Political Science, edited by Peter Krause and Ora Szekely, Columbia University Press

2020
DOI

Hatred She Wrote: A Comparative Topic Analysis of Extreme Right and Islamic State Women-Only Forums

Ayse D. Lokmanoglu, & Yannick Veilleux-Lepage

In Radicalization and Counter-Radicalization, edited by Derek M.D. Silva and Mathieu Deflem, Emerald Publishing Limited

2019
DOI

Definitions Matter: A Comparison of the Global Terrorism Database and the U.S. Governmental Reports of Terrorist Incidents in Western Europe, 2002-2016

Wojciech Kaczkowski, Ayse D. Lokmanoglu, & Carol K. Winkler

Cambridge Review of International Affairs

2019

Communicating Terrorism and Counterterrorism

Carol K. Winkler, & Ayse D. Lokmanoglu

In The Handbook of Communication and Security, Routledge

Repositories

GitHub Stats

Conferences

2025

    ICA

  • Edgerly, S., Lokmanoglu, A. D., Dobmeier, C. M., & Walter, N. (2025, June 16). The meaning of news: How US adults think about the concept of “news.” International Communication Association (ICA), Denver, CO.
  • Lokmanoglu, A. D., Davidson, R., & Ringel, S. (2025, June 14). American journalists’ Twitter deletion practices in a period of platform and political instability. International Communication Association (ICA).
  • Ophir, Y., Walter, D., Lokmanoglu, A. D., & Walter, N. (2025, June 14). Media Matters: A Meta-Theoretical Look into the Mediatization of Misinformation Research Over 30 Years. International Communication Association (ICA), Denver, CO.

2024

    NCA

  • Massignan, V., Winkler, C., Lokmanoglu, A., El Damanhoury, K., Walter, D., & Lemieux, A. (November, 2024). Digital Strategies of RT and CGTN: a Cross-Platform Comparative Analysis. International and Intercultural Communication Division, National Communication Association (NCA), New Orleans, LA.
  • Abhari, R., Mortenson, C., Alhalam, M., Villa Turek, E., & Lokmanoglu, A. D. (November, 2024). Visualizing Violence: How Parler Memes Normalize Intersectional Violence Visual Communication Division, National Communication Association (NCA), New Orleans, LA.
  • El Damanhoury, K., Winkler, C., Massignan, V., Chen, A., Papatheodorou, K., & Lokmanoglu, A. D. (November, 2024). Weaponizing Media Professionalism: RT and CGTN's Messaging Strategies to Build Credibility. International and Intercultural Communication Division, National Communication Association (NCA), New Orleans, LA.
  • APSA

  • Walter, D., Lokmanoglu, A., Ophir, Y., & Fabregat, E. (September, 2024). Some assembly required: #Wayfairgate on Reddit and Twitter. American Political Science Association Annual Meeting (APSA), Philadelphia, PA.
  • Lokmanoglu, A., Jadoon, A., Hemmila, T., & Perliger, A. (September, 2024). Exploring the Linkages between False Narratives and Political Events. American Political Science Association Annual Meeting (APSA), Philadelphia, PA.
  • Hemmila, T., Perliger, A., Jadoon, A., & Lokmanoglu, A. (September, 2024). Understanding the Properties of Extremists Disinformation Campaigns. American Political Science Association Annual Meeting (APSA), Philadelphia, PA.
  • Lokmanoglu, A. (2024, March 8). Computational Approaches for Explicating Political Violence in Online Images. Winter Research Symposium, Northwestern University.

For a complete list of conferences, please see my CV.

Teaching

Boston University

  • Computer Assisted Text Analysis (Graduate), Spring 2025
  • Trending Insights: Social Data Analysis and Visualization (Graduate), Spring 2025
  • Interactive Media Design (Graduate), Fall 2024

Clemson University

  • Disinformation (Undergraduate), Spring 2024
  • Political Communication (Undergraduate), Fall 2023

Northwestern University

  • Social Media Listening (Graduate), Master of Science in Communication, Summer 2023

2nd SocialComQuant Summer School on Computational Social Science

  • Methods for analyzing and modeling textual data (Graduate), Summer 2022

Georgia State University

  • Media, Culture and Society (Undergraduate), Spring 2020

Last updated: April 2025