Investigating Affirmative Action Discussions on Social Media

In June 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court banned race-based affirmative action (AA) in college admissions, reshaping college access for underrepresented students. AA is historically controversial, and social media platforms enable discussions of AA that traverse physical and social barriers. My dissertation explores these social media discussions of AA, taking a qualitative, cross-platform approach to investigate how socio-technical properties of platforms shape social media-based AA discussions and their impacts, especially for underrepresented college applicants. I aim to make empirical, theoretical, and design contributions to promote informed, mindful, and deliberative discussions of contentious, identity-related topics on social media.