Alex Newhouse

Curriculum Vitae

alex.newhouse@colorado.edu | Boulder, CO | linkedin.com/in/alexbnewhouse

Education

University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO
Doctor of Philosophy, Political Science, Anticipated Graduation: May 2027

  • Dissertation: “Social Processes and Collective Mobilization in the Online Extreme Right”
  • Methods: machine learning, natural language processing, social network analysis, and time-series causal inference
  • Comparative Politics and Political Methodology subfields
  • PSCI committee: Andrew Q. Philips (co-chair), Jennifer Fitzgerald (co-chair), Alexandra Siegel
  • Other advisor: Brian Keegan (Information Science, CU Boulder)

Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA (Remote Student)
Master of Science, Analytics, Graduation: Fall 2021

  • Coursework in Python, R, JavaScript, Deep and Machine Learning, and Data Visualization

Middlebury Institute of International Studies (MIIS), Monterey, CA
Master of Arts, Nonproliferation and Terrorism Studies, Graduation: Dec. 2018

  • Financial Crimes Management Specialization; Foreign Language of Study: Russian

Middlebury College, Middlebury, VT
Bachelor of Arts, Political Science and English Literature, Russian Minor, Graduation: May 2017

  • Graduated Summa cum Laude, departmental honors in English

Peer-Reviewed Publications

Benton, A., Newhouse, A., and Philips, A. “Mind the Gap! Policy Dissonance and Financial Markets.” May 2025 (under review).

Newhouse, A. and Kowert, R. “Extremist Identity Creation Through Performative Infighting on Steam.” Frontiers in Psychology (forthcoming).

Kowert, R., Kilmer, E., and Newhouse, A. “Taking it to the Extreme: Prevalence and Nature of Extremist Sentiment in Games.” Frontiers in Psychology. August 2024.

Kowert, R., Kilmer, E., and Newhouse, A. “Culturally Justified Hate: Prevalence and Mental Health Impact of Dark Participation in Games.” Proceedings of the 57th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. January 2024.

Newhouse, A. “The Threat is the Network: The Multi-Node Structure of Neo-Fascist Accelerationism.” CTC Sentinel. June 2021.

Book Chapters

Newhouse, A. and Kowert, R. “Recruitment and mobilization in digital gaming spaces.” Handbuch Gaming & Rechtsextremismus (ed. Linda Schlegel). Forthcoming.

Kowert, R. and Newhouse, A. “Digital games as cultural assets of influence.” The Sociology of Violent Extremism (ed. Suraj Lakhani and Amarnath Amarasingam). May 2025.

Newhouse, A. and Kowert, R. “Digital games as vehicles for extremist recruitment and mobilization.” Gaming and Extremism: The Radicalization of Digital Playgrounds (ed. Linda Schlegel and Rachel Kowert). March 2024.

Pre-Prints and Other Publications

Kriner, M., Conroy, M., Newhouse, A., and Lewis, J. “Understanding Accelerationist Narratives: The Great Replacement Theory.” Global Network on Extremism and Technology. May 2022.

Kowert, R., Botehlo, A., and Newhouse, A. “Breaking the Building Blocks of Hate: A Case Study of Minecraft Servers.” Anti-Defamation League. July 2022.

Shadnia, D., Newhouse, A., Kriner, M., and Bradley, A. “Militant Accelerationism Coalitions: A Case-Study in Neo-Fascist Accelerationist Coalition-Building Online.” Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism. June 2022.

Newhouse, A. and Gunesch, N. “The Boogaloo Movement Wants to Be Seen as Anti-Racist, But It Has a White Supremacist Fringe.” Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism. May 2021.

McGuffie, K. and Newhouse, A. “The Radicalization Risks of GPT-3 and Advanced Neural Language Models.” Arxiv pre-print. September 2020.

[Author list truncated] “Release Strategies and the Social Impacts of Language Models.” Arxiv pre-print. August 2019.

Newhouse, A. “From classifieds to crypto: how white supremacist groups have embraced crowdfunding.” Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism. 2019.

Public Writing

Jackson, D., Conroy, M., and Newhouse, A. “Insiders’ View of the January 6th Committee’s Social Media Investigation.” Just Security. January 2023.

Newhouse, A. “Far-right activists on social media telegraphed violence weeks in advance of the attack on the US Capitol.” The Conversation. January 2021. (35,400 views)

Newhouse, A. “Parler is bringing together mainstream conservatives, anti-Semites and white supremacists as the social media platform attracts millions of Trump supporters.” The Conversation. November 2020, updated January 2021. (241,000 views)

Conference Presentations

“Partisan Polarization Shapes Visual Framing of COVID-19 in U.S. Media.” Paper Presentation. Midwest Political Science Association Annual Meeting. April 2025.

“Elite Influence in an Online Neo-Fascist Forum.” Paper Presentation. Midwest Political Science Association Annual Meeting. April 2025.

“Media Bias in COVID-19 Coverage.” Paper Presentation. Midwest Political Science Association Annual Meeting. April 2024.

“Manifesting a Coup: Cross-Website Toxicity and Extremism on the Dot Win Network Prior to January 6, 2021.” Poster Session. New Frontiers in Text as Data. November 2023.

“Mitigating Harm in Design.” Game Developers Conference. March 2023.

“Accelerationism Research in Practice.” Terrorism and Social Media Conference. June 2022.

“The Landscape of Extremist Behavior in Games.” Game Developers Conference. March 2022.

“The Aesthetics of Acceleration.” Reactionary Digital Politics: Ideologies, Rhetorics, Aesthetics. June 2021.

Teaching Experience

As Instructor of Record

  • Digital Extremism, Middlebury Institute of International Studies, Spring 2023 (self-designed)
  • The Study of Post-War Fascism, Middlebury College, Winter 2026 (self-designed)
  • Online Extremism, Middlebury College, Jan. 2021 (self-designed)

As Teaching Assistant

  • Quantitative Research Methods, CU Boulder, Fall 2025, Spring 2024
  • Introduction to Western Political Thought, CU Boulder, Spring 2025
  • Introduction to Comparative Politics, CU Boulder, Fall 2024
  • Introduction to International Relations, CU Boulder, Fall 2023

Courses Prepared to Teach

  • Introduction to Political Science / American Government
  • Introduction to Comparative Politics
  • Quantitative Research Methods (introductory and advanced)
  • Data Science for Social Scientists
  • Political Violence & Extremism
  • Technology, Media & Politics
  • Senior Seminar / Capstone in Computational Social Science

Grants and Funding

Middlebury Conflict Transformation Grant, FY 2022 - $50,000, Principal Investigator

DHS Terrorism and Targeted Violence Prevention Grant, FY 2022 - $700,000, Principal Investigator

DHS Terrorism and Targeted Violence Prevention Grant, FY 2021 – $630,000, Principal Investigator

Mentorship and Supervision

Managed a total of 30 Middlebury undergraduate and graduate research assistants between 2019-2023.

Sample projects:

  • Partnership with Roblox to detect and mitigate violent and hateful networks of users
  • Partnership with Spectrum Labs to develop datasets of online toxicity, white supremacy, and violent behavior in 7 languages
  • Long-term research and policy support for a video social media platform’s policy enforcement team

Supervised independent projects for 15 Middlebury undergraduate interns and 4 graduate fellows.

Sample projects supervised:

  • “Italian Neofascism and the Years of Lead: A Closer Look at the Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari.”
  • “Archeofuturism and Its Parallels to Militant Accelerationism.”
  • “The French Far-Right on Telegram: Laundering Extremism Through Support For Political Activism.”
  • “Christian Identity’s New Role on the Extreme Right.”
  • “The AI Revolution and Its Implications on Domestic Counterterrorism.”

Service

Section to be updated with departmental, university, and professional service activities.

Professional Experience

Middlebury Institute of International Studies, Monterey, CA

Senior Research Fellow – Emerging Tech, CTEC, June 2023-August 2024

  • Led research into the influence of emerging technologies like AI on worldwide extremism and terrorism trends
  • Supervised CTEC’s portfolio of video game industry projects and coordinated data science resources

Deputy Director, CTEC, April 2021-May 2023

  • Oversaw CTEC’s research, operations, and development; managed team of full-time, part-time, and student researchers
  • Served as Principal Investigator on multiple research projects, including two funded by DHS grants
  • Built CTEC’s Data Science functions using AI, machine learning, NLP, and social network analysis

Data Analyst and Research Lead, CTEC, Jan. 2019-April 2021

  • Built and delivered an end-to-end data analysis and visualization platform for trends in hate and violence on social video platforms
  • Led development of glossary of right-wing terminology, slang, and images

United States House of Representatives, Washington, DC

Investigative Consultant, Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack, Feb. 2022-Oct. 2022

  • Designed and executed cross-platform investigations on how online communities contributed to the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol
  • Provided expertise on online extremism to investigators and Members of Congress
  • Drafted sections of public hearings and delivered written material included in the Committee’s final report

Selected Industry Experience

  • Data Governance Analyst, Sony Interactive Entertainment, Jan. 2019-Jan. 2020
  • Global Fraud Monitoring Analyst Intern, Sony Interactive Entertainment, Summer 2018
  • Crisis Management Intern, Uber, Fall 2017
  • Editorial Intern, GameSpot – CBS Interactive, Summers 2014, 2015, 2016

Media Appearances

Radio/Podcast: Bloomberg, BBC, NPR’s Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and On Point.

Written: Washington Post, New York Times, Vice, Axios, Politico, FiveThirtyEight, Wired, ProPublica.

Video: Meet the Press Now, Denver7.

Technical Skills

Programming languages: R, Python, MATLAB, Stata

Machine learning frameworks: PyTorch, Scikit-Learn, Caret, Hugging Face Transformers

Social Network Analysis: igraph, statnet

Query languages: SQL, Splunk

Research Positions and Labs

Fellowships

Senior Non-Resident Fellow, MIIS, Mar. 2025 – Present

Labs

Graduate Affiliate, Institute for Behavioral Science, 2023 – Present

Lab Member, Colorado Laboratory on Users, Media, and Networks, 2023 – Present

Lab Member, American Politics Research Lab, 2024 - Present