Irina Shklovski
irinas [at] cs [dot] cmu [dot] edu

I am a doctoral student at the Human Computer Interaction Institute in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. My advisors are Professors Robert Kraut and Sara Kiesler. I am interested in a wide range of topics, including how people use information and communication technologies to maintain their social relationships, interact in public and private spaces, participate in online communities and cope with adverse circumstances. I believe that we can learn a great deal about human behavior by considering how people adapt and transform technologies to fit their needs.

Currently I am working on two projects. My dissertation is based on my work with Robert Kraut and Jonathon Cummings (Duke University), investigating the impact of residential mobility on development and maintenance of social ties and the role technology plays in this process. I am also leading a research project, investigating the long term impact of Hurricane Katrina on current and former residents of New Orleans. This work focuses on how subpopulations of New Orleans, such as musicians or food professionals, coped with changes brought on by destruction from the Hurricane and the involuntary exile from their tightly-knit communities.

During the summer of 2004, I had an opportunity to work with Scott Mainwaring and the People and Practices research (PaPR) group at Intel Research in Portland, OR exploring how people use technology to deal with long distance residential mobility.

Prior to coming to Carnegie Mellon, I spent two years working for the Mammoth Mountain Jr. Team as a ski-coach and as an administrator. Before spending two years skiing, I graduated from the University of Southern California with degrees in Psychology and Art History, Magna Cum Laude. While at USC, I worked with Stephen Read on an honors project that dealt with friendship formation in virtual reality text-based games (MUDs).