Benjamin V. Hanrahan, PhD

I am an Assistant Professor at the College of Information Sciences and Technology at Penn State.

Previously, I worked in the Center for Human-Computer Interaction, which is directed by John M. Carroll. I was also a Research Scientist in the Work Practice Technology group at Xerox Research Centre Europe from 2012-2015. I received my PhD in Computer Science from Virginia Tech, where my supervisor was Dr. Manuel A. Pérez-Quiñones.

My research interests are in in how user interfaces structure and influence user agency. I have investigated this topic in various contexts, particularly how email conversations impact users' agency over their attention, how employer-employee relationships are mediated by the Amazon Mechanical Turk platform, and how communities can be strengthened by encouraging simple activities.