Rebekah Tromble
(she/her)
Professor, Jointly Appointed with College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Research interests
- Data science
- Natural language processing and information retrieval
- Network science
Education
- PhD in Political Science, Indiana University
- BA in Political Science, Knox College
Biography
Rebekah Tromble is a professor in the Khoury College of Computer Sciences and the College of Social Sciences and Humanities at Northeastern University, based in Boston.
Tromble's multi-method research has two main focuses: describing the relationship between online and offline extremist activity, and exploring the responsible design of sociotechnical systems to connect public servants to the public. She often focuses on political communication and discourse on social media, and crafted a rapid response system to support journalists and scientists facing online intimidation and harassment after being the target of a harassment campaign herself. In 2024, she was honored with the Union of Concerned Scientists Defender of Science award and the David Swanson Award for Service to Political Communication Scholarship.
Upon joining Northeastern in 2025, Tromble became co-lead of the new Institute for Information, the Internet, and Democracy, which seeks to advance public-interest research that examines the role of the internet and new and emerging information technologies in democratic societies. She also retains her role as co-founder and executive board member of the Coalition for Independent Technology Research — which strives to advance, defend, and sustain the right to ethically study the impact of technology on society — and her role on the European Digital Media Observatory’s advisory board, where she supports improved access to digital platform data for research purposes.
