On Thursday, July 22, UW Sociology PhD Candidate Yuan Hsiao successfully defended his dissertation entitled, “How social media affects political action: the effects of digital network structures and motivations on movement participation.” His project was innovative and incisive, drawing on the expertise of an excellent committee that included Steven Pfaff (Chair), Kate Stovel, Emilio Zagheni and Jevin West (iSchool). The project takes on the implications of utilizing social media for political purposes, specifically support for and involvement in protest movements. Although most scholars agree that social media can propel political change,  the mechanisms underlying why social media affects political action remain unclear. Yuan’s dissertation uses micro and meso-level perspectives to examine these mechanisms. Drawing on the cases of the Sunflower [pro-democracy and national self-determination] Movement in Taiwan and Black Lives Matter Sacramento in the US, the dissertation assembles original survey data and digital trace data to unravel the psychological and network processes that underlie the mobilizing power of social media. Hsiao had a very productive experience in the Sociology department, publishing more than a dozen papers in top journals in three fields (sociology, communication, political science) and earning an MS in Statistics. He will be joining the Communication Department at the UW in the fall as an Assistant Professor.