About me and my research interests
I am an Assistant Professor at the College of Computer and Information Sciences, King Saud University. My research lies at the intersection of Computational Social Science, Natural Language Processing (NLP), and Responsible AI, where I develop computational methods to evaluate the social and normative dimensions of language.
My work focuses on multilingual and socially grounded language processing, with particular emphasis on modeling and evaluating language use across diverse social and cultural contexts. I study phenomena such as bias, abusive and harmful language, misinformation, and implicit social meanings.
A core goal of my research is to move beyond surface-level language analysis toward representing implicit values and dynamics embedded in language, in support of more responsible and socially aligned models.
Research scope and fit
To help clarify research fit: I am not interested in monolingual or polyglossia/dialect-focused work, including ArabicNLP, ArabicNetwork, ArabicHCI, Arabic processing, gaming, religious studies, network science, healthcare/biology, pandemic/COVID-19 applications, educational apps, applied science applications, political analysis, privacy applications, policy, sustainability, cybersecurity, or startup-oriented projects.
Please see my FAQ page and my recent research for a clearer view of my current research direction.
Highlights of my research so far
- Computational Social Science and Natural Language Processing
- Social bias, multilingual cultural alignment, hate speech, counter-speech, stance detection, and social meaning evaluation.
- Natural Language Processing
- Cross-lingual modeling, paraphrasing, readability assessment, rumor veracity detection, and socially aware language technologies.
More about my recent research
More about my most recent research is available on this page.
Academic background
I received my Ph.D. in August 2021 from the University of Edinburgh, where I was affiliated with the Institute for Language, Cognition and Communication at the School of Informatics, and was a member of the SMASH research group.
My doctoral work addressed a fundamental challenge in stance detection: how to understand stance in complex, real-world social media environments. The thesis developed computational models that examine the interaction between language, sentiment, and social dynamics, while also motivating more responsible and context-aware NLP evaluation frameworks.
My work has been covered in international media for its relevance to social influence and trustworthy AI. Alongside my main research, I also contributed to projects on hybrid language–behavior modeling for suicide risk assessment and rumor veracity detection through conversational modeling.
Before my Ph.D., I earned both my BSc and MSc in Computer and Information Sciences from King Saud University. My master’s thesis focused on query paraphrasing for information retrieval, and I also worked as a research assistant on readability identification.
📚 My personal interests include learning different languages and reading. Recommend me a book for my reading list here.