College Access &
Social Media
I am broadly interested in how social media interactions may facilitate and/or impede college access, particularly for underrepresented students such as first-generation, low-income students. More specifically, I examine how students engage in self-presentation, self-disclosure, and social comparison and how these processes influence their ability to access and persist in postsecondary institutions. I also explore social media-based discourses about higher education and college admissions, including discussions about affirmative action and their impacts on minoritized students.
​
Publications:
-
Pyle, C. (2025). Designing for Discourse: Social Media, Socio-Technical Rhetorical Strategies, and Affirmative Action Discussions. In The 2025 ACM Conference on Designing Interactive Systems.
-
Pyle, C. (2025). Investigating Affirmative Action Discussions on Social Media. In The 2025 ACM International Conference on Supporting Group Work (pp. 103-105).
-
Pyle, C., Ellison, N. B., & Andalibi, N. (2023). Social Media and College-Related Social Support Exchange for First-Generation, Low-Income Students: The Role of Identity Disclosures. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 7(CSCW2), 1-36. Special Recognition for Contributions to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
-
Brown, M., Pyle, C., & Ellison, N. B. (2022). “On My Head About It”: College Aspirations, Social Media Participation, and Community Cultural Wealth. Social Media+ Society, 8(2).
​
Projects:
-
Dissertation
-
Dissertation Proposal
-
Pre-Candidacy Proposal
-
Pre-Candidacy Paper
-
Pre-Candidacy Slides
-
Field Prelim Exam Paper
-
Field Prelim Exam Slides
College Access & Algorithms/AI
I investigate how algorithmic & AI-enabled systems (broadly construed) influence college access, particularly for underrepresented student populations. Such algorithmic systems include those that underpin the social media platforms that students use to gain information and support around college-going as well as algorithmic systems embedded in higher education institutions, such as in their admissions processes, in student services' office chatbots, and in prediction algorithms that determine which students are "at-risk."
​
Publications:​
-
Pyle, C., & Andalibi, N. (2025). Algorithmic College Admissions in the US: Distances Between Vendors' Claims and Applicants' Perceptions. In Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction. Special Recognition for Contributions to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
-
Andalibi, N., Pyle, C., Barta, K., Xian, L., Jacobs, A., & Ackerman, M. (2023). Conceptualizing Algorithmic Stigma. ACM’s Conference on Human Factors in Computing (CHI ‘23).
-
Pyle, C., & Andalibi, N. (2021). First-Generation, Low-Income Students as Data Subjects in Higher Education Profiling and Prediction AI/ML Applications.
Career Access & Emerging Technologies
Outside of the college access context, my work contends with how emerging technologies (e.g., AI) leveraged in organizations shapes hiring and career access. Within this work, I juxtapose organizational representatives' perspectives (e.g., recruiters) with job-seekers' perspectives about these technologies' benefits and harms.
​
Publications:​
-
Pyle, C., Roemmich, K., & Andalibi, N. (2024). U.S. Job-Seekers’ Organizational Justice Perceptions of Emotion AI-Enabled Asynchronous Interviews. Forthcoming in Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction.
-
Pyle, C.*, Zhang, B. F.*, Haimson, O. L., & Andalibi, N. (2024). “I’m Constantly in This Dilemma”: How Migrant Technology Professionals Perceive Social Media Recommendation Algorithms. To be presented at ACM’s Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW ’24).​
