Tamar Mitts

Tamar Mitts is Associate Professor of International and Public Affairs and a member of the Data Science Institute, the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies, the Institute of Global Politics, and the Department of Political Science at Columbia University. Her research addresses emerging challenges at the intersection of technology and conflict.

Professor Mitts’s work focuses on several broad questions: (a) What role do digital technologies play during conflict and civil war? (b) How do violent and nonviolent movements use the internet to advance their cause? and (c) In what ways can media be manipulated to shape public opinion? Mitts’s research draws on innovative data collection techniques and creative research designs that leverage the wealth of information available in digital media platforms. Her articles have been published in leading journals, including the American Political Science Review, International Organization, the Journal of Politics, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and the Journal of Economic Perspectives, among other outlets. Her research has been cited in the Washington Post, Boston Globe, TIME Magazine, Fortune Magazine, Vox, War on the Rocks, Tech Policy Press, and Foreign Policy.

Her new book, Safe Havens for Hate: The Challenge of Moderating Online Extremism (Princeton University Press), explains why militant and hate organizations flourish online despite global efforts to clamp down on harmful content on social media platforms. 

Mitts holds an M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University and a B.A. in politics from New York University.