Interdisciplinary and International by Design
Meet our team of researchers and experts.
We are focused on the global dimensions of disinformation and misinformation. Successfully addressing these issues requires a diverse set of perspectives and skills. The University of Texas is uniquely well-equipped to bring together researchers and experts from different disciplines. What starts here will change the world.
Leadership Team
Mary Neuburger
Founder, Interim Director
Dr. Mary Neuburger is the Chair of the Department of Slavic and Eurasian Studies; the Director of the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies (CREEES); Co-editor of the Journal of Contemporary History; and a Professor in the Department of History. Her research focus is on modern eastern Europe with a specialization in southeastern Europe. Her research interests include urban culture, consumption, commodity exchange, and the history of truth, lies, and “pseudoscience”.
Sally K. Dickson
Assistant Director
Sally Dickson has worked at The University of Texas for almost 20 years in the School of Law, The Center for European Studies, and in Human Resources at the College of Liberal Arts as well as receiving her undergrad from UT Dallas and her MPAff from the LBJ School of Public Affairs. As Assistant Director of GDIL, she enjoys working closely with the students and faculty to help grow what she believes to be one of the most unique research labs at UT Austin.
Former Leadership
Michael Mosser
Executive Director 2022-2024
Dr. Michael W. Mosser is Associate Professor of Instruction at the University of Texas at Austin with a joint appointment in the Department of Government, the Center for European Studies (CES), and the International Relations and Global Studies (IRG) program. He is the Executive Director of the Global Disinformation Lab (GDIL), the Director of the Center for European Studies (CES), as well as a Distinguished Scholar in the Robert S. Strauss Center for International Security and Law.
Ryan Williams
Founder, Deputy Director/Evergreen Team Lead 2020-2024
Ryan Williams is one of the founders of the Global Disinformation Lab and a current PhD student at the LBJ School of Public Affairs. As creator and TTL for Project Evergreen, he is leading a strong team of GDIL researchers and LBJ graduate students to create the first Global Disinformation Policy Database that plans to release a dataset of all known policy responses to disinformation and misinformation
Kiril Avramov
Founding Director 2020-2022; Research Co-Director 2022-2024
Kiril Avramov is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Slavic & Eurasian Studies (DSES) and a Fellow at the Intelligence Studies Project (ISP) at the University of Texas at Austin. He holds courtesy appointments at the Department of Government and the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. He is also the Co-Director of the Global Disinformation Lab.
Faculty Research Directors
Amy Liu
Department of Government/Project Hijack
Dr. Liu is a professor and the Director of Graduate Admissions and Placement in the Government Department at the University of Texas at Austin. My research and teaching focus on the intersection of language and politics – whether the politics of language (e.g., the representation and attitudes of linguistic minorities) or the language of politics (e.g., how leaders talk and how people think).
Volodymyr Kulikov
London School of Economics/Project Hunger Games
Volodymyr Kulikov is a historian holding a position as a visiting assistant professor at the University of Texas in Austin in the Department fo Slavic and Eurasian Studies. His most recent appointment was at the Cultural Heritage Studies Program of Central European University (CEU) and at the Ukrainian Catholic University (Lviv, Ukraine) and the Karazin Kharkiv National University (Kharkiv, Ukraine).
Faculty Affiliates
Global Perspectives
Kim Nguyen
Intelligence Studies Project
Josephine Lukito
School of Journalism and Media
Nahid Siamdoust
Department of Middle Eastern Studies
Mark Pomar
School of Journalism
Ahmer Arif
School of Information
Bryan Jones
School of Law