New faculty spotlight: Matt Hannah focuses on the intersection of technology and humanism

Matt Hannah joined the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 2025 as a new faculty member with joint appointments in the Digital Scholarship Hub and the Department of Communication Arts. His role at Libraries sits at the intersection of technology and humanism, inviting researchers and students to engage with digital tools and methods with a critical eye. With his background in digital humanities and current work in digital platforms and conspiracy theories, he supports the Libraries’ mission to advance information literacy while examining how evolving digital landscapes impact individuals and communities.  

What is your hometown? Where did you grow up?
I was born in Charlottesville, Virginia, where I spent my childhood roaming around the Blue Ridge Mountains and exploring rich historical sites with my family. My parents were firm believers in understanding our role in history, so I spent many summers hiking around Civil War and Revolutionary War battlefields in the area. Later, my family decided to relocate to the West Coast, and I grew up in Oregon in the shadow of the Cascade Mountains, which offered a very different experience rooted in nature and the outdoors. 

What is your educational/professional background?
I completed a PhD in English at the University of Oregon focused on an analysis of the networks of patronage and influence that fueled the avant-garde art and literature of the early 20th century. I created datasets out of biographies and memoirs from the period and mapped these relationships as networks.This project was part of an emerging interdisciplinary research area known as “digital humanities,” and I’ve been researching digital platforms and methodologies ever since.

What is your field of research, and how did you get into it?
My first academic job was in the School of Information Studies at Purdue University, and I became interested in research focused on how digital platforms shape our experience of information. During the pandemic, I noticed emerging media discussions of an online phenomenon called QAnon, and I became fascinated by the social and political impact of this movement as it coalesced across social media. I spent several years during the pandemic exploring the QAnon sites on the dark web, and I began to research the role of digital platforms such as 4chan, 8kun, YouTube, and Twitter in facilitating the viral spread of this conspiracy theory, which led me to study and teach conspiracy theories as they have been fueled by social media and other online environments.

What are the main goals of your current research?
My research seeks to understand how seemingly normal, intelligent Americans can fall into rabbit holes of extremism and conspiracism, and I hope to develop resources to help individuals escape conspiratorial thinking. Most of us now have friends or family who have succumbed to the temptation of conspiracy theories as a narrative that explains current events, and such obsession with secret plots has had a detrimental effect on our national civic life, which have been effectively exacerbated by America’s adversaries. My research attempts to diagnose such conspiracism as the product of digital platforms and environments with the hope that we can develop better resources to deradicalize our communities and rebuild a sense of civic cohesion.

What attracted you to UW–Madison?
The University of Wisconsin–Madison is an incredible site for my work because it provides a space for my research, housed in the Department of Communication Arts, but also an opportunity to develop research infrastructure in digital research as the director of the Digital Scholarship Hub, located in the UW–Madison Libraries. This Hub provides a space for faculty and students who, like me, are interested in understanding the impact of technology on our lives. We are hard at work designing and developing a vibrant research space on the second floor of Memorial Library where researchers and students can find a community around digital scholarship.

What’s your favorite place on campus?
Lake Mendota. It’s such a wonderful outdoor space, and I love having it so close. Because of my youth growing up in Oregon, I love being near water and trees, and I cannot get enough of the outdoor spaces near this campus.

What’s the most important lesson you wish to convey to students?
Don’t be afraid to practice your intellect. It can be so easy to think of your education as a route to getting a job — which it can be — but don’t forget that you are also learning how to be a thinking human being in a time when intellect is both incredibly important and often neglected. Being a person who thinks about tough problems is so important for the health of our democracy. I believe that one of the things you should learn in college is how to think.

Do you feel your work relates to the Wisconsin Idea? If so, how?
Absolutely. I am interested in engaging communities beyond the university, especially given how pervasive conspiracy theories and mis- and disinformation are now. We live in a time in which mis- and disinformation are having a dramatic and profound impact on our communities, and  I hope to develop resources to combat the spread of extremist and conspiracist ideas.

What’s something interesting or surprising about your area of expertise that will make us sound smarter at parties?
Apophenia is a great word to throw around at a cocktail party. It means the tendency to see patterns and connections where none exist. It’s a fascinating side effect of the internet, which I somewhat satirically call an “apophenia machine,” that connections between anything can be found. It was already implicit in my research on networks, but it is especially prominent in conspiracy movements.

Do you have hobbies or interests outside of your work?
I love to travel and spend time outdoors. If I can schedule a trip somewhere I have never been during a school break, I will. I also try to travel around using public transportation or walking to experience a place beyond the tourist locations. I’ve been to every state except Alaska, which I hope to visit soon, and I’ve visited almost every national park.