I’m Ehsan Nouri, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Digital Technology for Democracy Lab, University of Virginia (DTD Lab). My research examines the bottom-up mechanisms through which digital technologies enable collective behavior patterns such as collaboration, behavioral contagion, consensus formation, and cultural evolution. I study these mechanisms within applications ranging from crisis response and civic participation, to cultural consumption and online collective sensemaking.
My research is grounded in the view that both humans and technologies operate as information-processing agents within complex sociotechnical systems. I examine how digital infrastructures, algorithms, and interaction mechanisms shape the ways individuals perceive, communicate, and coordinate with one another, and how these influences accumulate into larger patterns of collective action. This perspective guides my use of computational modeling and behavioral experiments to identify the mechanisms that link micro-level decision-making and technology use to macro-level social dynamics.
I received my PhD in Management Information Systems from Simon Fraser University (2025), and am a graduate of the University of Tehran in IT Management (MSc, 2020) and Electrical Engineering (BSc, 2017). I am honored to be an active member of the Association for Information Systems (AIS) and the Academy of Management (AOM), and have served in leadership roles within IEEE.
Beyond academic work, I have a deep interest in Persian poetry and occasionally write my own. My favorite poets include Fereydoun Moshiri and Forough Farrokhzad, whose depth and complexity of emotion and meaning illuminate both personal reflection and the prolonged sufferings and collective experiences of Iranians across generations. Philosophy is another one of my quiet delights, especially the exploration of value and moral clarity in times of cultural transformation. I believe meaningful change begins with a thoughtful understanding of the guiding philosophies that shape human and societal value. These grounding ideas help us reinterpret tradition and imagine the future with responsibility and continuity, rather than reinventing every wheel. Much of the loss of meaning and direction in the modern world arises from discarding the compass we already possess and attempting to redraw a landscape we have not yet understood. This perspective shapes both my scholarship and my broader reflections on human experience.