Shana Kleiner received her Masters in Social Work from Columbia University, and her Bachelors in Social Work from Skidmore College. As a previous policy analyst for a nonprofit providing legal services for survivors of domestic and sexual violence, Shana has expertise with qualitative research methods, advocacy for survivors, and knowledge translation. She is currently the Assistant Director of SAFELab, a transdisciplinary research group drawing on qualitative and computational methods to examine well-being, health equity, and social justice with youth of Color and marginalized communities. In her current role, she researches online grief, as well as theoretical approaches to analyzing digital communication and language. She works with interdisciplinary teams in order to conduct research on digital counterpublics, social work in data science, ethical implications of GenAI, and bias within large language models.

Shana’s research interests also include femme online identity performance, particularly in relation to resilience and coping strategies. She is fascinated by the ruptures that are inherently present between digital avatars and real-life selves. She is passionate about work that targets the space in-between: where the digital self and the real self collide and split. Shana was a previous fellow at the MDOCS Storytellers’ Institute, and worked with other artists, writers, and filmmakers surrounding the notion of co-creation. Her personal interests include zines, collaging, vintage shopping, and swimming.