Eyal I. Hanfling

Eyal I. Hanfling, PhD, is Director of the Technology and Democracy Research Hub at the Rutgers Democracy Lab and Associate Director for Social Media Research at the Miller Center.

Hanfling oversees the Hub’s research agenda, student training, and public engagement initiatives. His work investigates how social media, artificial intelligence, and other emerging technologies influence political behavior, trust in institutions, and civic engagement. He leads interdisciplinary research initiatives that bring together Rutgers students, faculty, policymakers, technologists, and community organizations.

Hanfling’s doctoral research combined experimental surveys, interviews, and data from simulated social media environments to better understand the effects of social media platforms on intergroup relations. At MIT, he was affiliated with the Security Studies Program, Global Diversity Lab, GOV/LAB, and Political Experiments Research Lab. His research has been supported by Harvard Law School's Program on Negotiation, Schmidt Futures' International Strategy Forum and MIT’s Center for International Studies.

Hanfling was a 2024-25 Peace Scholar Fellow at the US Institute of Peace and worked in the South Asia program at the Stimson Center in Washington, DC on nuclear risk reduction and security issues in India and Pakistan. He holds a BA in Public Policy Studies and South Asian Languages and Civilizations from the University of Chicago and a PhD in Political Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).