Alexis-Carlota Cochrane
alexiscarlota@mcmaster.caAlexis-Carlota’s research examines how digital platforms make harm possible through their sociotechnical design. She examines how features, algorithms, moderation systems, and profit models expose users to risk, amplify abusive content, and disproportionately suppress users at the intersection of gender and sexuality. Her doctoral dissertation surveys queer users about how they experience and respond to digital harms and how they envision platforms that better account for their particular precarities.
Her research interests include Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence, Digital Harms, AI-Generated Harms, Critical Data and AI, Platform Studies, Digital (Humanities) Scholarship, and Feminist and Queer Theory.
Alexis-Carlota has published on digital harms and vulnerabilities, technology-facilitated gender-based violence, platform power and precarity, digital community care, and queer and feminist digital practices in venues such as Rivista di Digital Politics, Interdisciplinary Digital Engagement in Arts & Humanities (IDEAH), and the Challenging Gendered Digital Harm research report.
Her research affiliations include both current and past roles with the DISCO Network, housed within the Digital Studies Institute at the University of Michigan, the Centre for Latinx Digital Media at Northwestern University, Pulse Lab’s Social Media and Activism Research Group at McMaster University, and the Humanities, Arts, Science and Technology Alliance and Collaboratory. She supports the Canadian Certificate in Digital Humanities as a liaison and steering committee member. She was previously a research assistant with the Digital Feminist Network of Canada (DigFemNet).
In 2025, Alexis-Carlota received the King Charles III Coronation Medal for her research on Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence and contributions to gender justice in Canada.