CV

November 2024

Charles Berret, PhD

Education

Columbia University, New York, NY (2011-18).  
MA, MPhil, PhD in Communication Studies.  
Dissertation: The Cultural Contradictions of Cryptography.  link

Northwestern University, Evanston, IL (2009-10). 
MS in Editorial Journalism.

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (2003-07). 
AB in Philosophy (High Distinction, Phi Beta Kappa).

Experience

Postdoctoral Fellow in Critical Data Visualization (2022– ).
Dual appointment in Media & Information Technologies + Gender Studies. 
Linköping University, Sweden.

Postdoctoral Fellow in Information Visualization (2020–22)
Dept. of Computer Science. 
University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Journalism, Writing, and Media (2018–20)  + Computer Science (Affiliated Faculty). 
University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC.

Writer-in-Residence (2018–20).
Dept. of English and Media Studies. 
Yeshiva University, New York, NY.

Research Fellow (2016-18).
Brown Institute for Media Innovation. 
Columbia University, New York, NY.

Research Fellow (2015-16).
Tow Center for Digital Journalism. 
Columbia University, New York, NY.

Book Project

Berret C. Cryptographic Amnesia: Code, Power, and the Algorithmic Mediation of Everyday Life (forthcoming, 2025). Manuscript in development for MIT Press series History and Foundations of Information Science.

Publications

Berret C and Yu R (2024). “The Lifespan of Ephemera: Reflections on Collaborative Art and the Embodiment of Data.” Chapter in Kaun A & Velkova J eds., Beyond Academic Publics: Conversations About Scholarly Collaborations With Cultural Institutions, Linköping University Press. link

Berret C (Preprint). “The Drawbridge Model of Cryptographic Communication.” link

Berret C and Munzner T (Preprint). “Iceberg Sensemaking: A Process Model for Critical Data Analysis and Visualization.” link

Kasica S, Berret C, and Munzner T (2023). “Dirty Data in the Newsroom: Comparing Data Journalism and Data Science.” Proc. 2023 ACM CHI Conf. on Human Factors in Computing Systems (Best Paper Honorable Mention). link

Kasica S, Berret C, and Munzner T (2021). “TableScraps: An Actionable Framework for Multi-Table Data Wrangling From An Artifact Study of Computational Journalism.” IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics. (Special Issue: Proc. IEEE InfoVis 2020), pp. TK (27:2). link

Yu R and Berret C (2019). “Knowing Together: An Experiment in Collaborative Photogrammetry.” ACM SIGGRAPH Art Gallery and Art Papers. Special Issue of Leonardo (52:4). link link link

Berret C (2017). “Walter Benjamin and the Question of Print in Media History.” Journal of Communication Inquiry (41:4). link

Berret C (2016). Guide to SecureDrop: An Emerging Platform for Secure and Anonymous Communication in Newsrooms. Report published by the Tow Center for Digital Journalism, Columbia University. link

Berret C and Phillips (2016). Teaching Data and Computational Journalism. Report published by Columbia Journalism School and the Knight Foundation. link

Brideau and Berret C (2014). “A Brief Introduction to Impact—The Meme Font.” Journal of Visual Culture (13:3). link

Berret C (2014). “Sensors and Sensibilia: A Historical Survey.” Chapter in Sensor Journalism, edited by Fergus Pitt. Published by the Tow Center for Digital Journalism. link

Conference Papers

Berret C (2022). “If Communication is a Bridge, Cryptography is a Drawbridge: A Stage-Based Model of Communication Processes.” International Communication Association (ICA) 2022 (Philosophy, Theory, and Critique Division). link

“Newsroom Sensemaking: A Process Model for Epistemic Humility in Data and Computational Journalism” (2021). Computation+Journalism Symposium, Northeastern University (virtual). link

“Information, Entropy, and Play: The Ludic Cybernetics of Claude Shannon and John Cage” (2020). What Is Information? Conference, University of Oregon (virtual).

“Two Varieties of Digital Utopianism” (2019). What Is Technology? Conference, University of Oregon.

“Collecting Randomness for the Vernam System: The Cryptographic Use of Noise at Bell Labs” (2017). Society for the History of Technology (SHOT) Annual Meeting, Philadelphia. link

“Teaching Data and Computational Journalism: Lessons from a Nationwide Study of Journalism Education” (2016). Presentation (with Cheryl Phillips) of study results at the Association of Educators in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) Conference, Minneapolis. link

“On the Bubble: An Internet Scale Investigation into Location-Based Algorithmic Filtering of Political Content” (2016). Paper accepted but not delivered (with Rebecca Weiss). International Communication Association (ICA), Seoul. link

“Understanding SecureDrop: Information Security and Emerging Journalistic Platforms” (2015). Paper delivered at the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) Conference, Denver. link

“The Quantitative Turn in the History of Technology” (2013). Talk and workshop (with Kevin Gotkin). Society for the History of Technology (SHOT) Annual Meeting, Portland, Maine.

“The Techniques and Aesthetics of Phototypesetting” (2012). Paper delivered at the Society for the History of Technology (SHOT) annual meeting, Copenhagen. link

Lectures, Talks & Workshops

“The Drawbridge Model of Cryptographic Communication: A Framework for Sociocultural Analysis of Information Security” (2024). Keynote address. Wallenberg AI, Autonomous Systems, and Software Program (WASP) forum on AI and Cybersecurity. link

“Feminist Technoscience” (2024). Guest lecture for MA students in Gender Studies, Linköping University, Sweden. link

“Scholarly Research in Plaintext” (2023). Workshop for the Linköping University Data Lab.

“Knowing Together” (2020). Talk for the event "Critical Visualization for Humanities Research: Designing for People, Context, and Politics." UBC Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies. link

“Information Security and the Information Society” (2020). Seminar for the UBC Science and Technology Studies Colloquium.

“Data Visualization, the Press, and Public Opinion” (2019). Lecture for VIZ@UBC.

“Digital Security and Social Media” (2019). Guest lecture for “Decoding Social Media” course at UBC.

“Whistleblowing in the Digital Newsroom: How Wikileaks and Edward Snowden Prepared Journalists for the Age of Trump” (2017). Public lecture as writer-in-residence at Yeshiva University.

“Scraping Text and Analyzing Social Media” (2017). Two guest lectures (with Alexandre Gonçalves) for the Stabile Program, Columbia Journalism School.

“Scraping Data From the Web: Free Resources For Storytellers” (2017-9). Annual workshop for ‘Data+Narrative’ at Boston University. link

“Findings from Teaching Data and Computational Journalism” (2016). AEJMC pre-conference workshop on Teaching Algorithmic Transparency.

“Data, Computation, and Journalism: Skills to Innovate in a Changing Media Landscape” (2016). Invited lecture. Hariri Institute for Computational Science & Engineering, Boston University. link

“Guide to SecureDrop: An Emerging Platform for Whistleblowing in the Newsroom” (2016). Report launch talk and panel at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism, Columbia Journalism School. link

“Sensors for Journalism” (2016). Two workshops with Mark Hansen and Tom Igoe at Columbia Journalism School on physical computing as a news reporting method.

“Encryption for Journalists” (2014). Guest lecture at Pace University.

“Mesh Nets, Journalism, and the Umbrella Protest in Hong Kong” (2014). Panel discussion for the ‘Journalism After Snowden’ series at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism, Columbia Journalism School.

“Media Analysis and Social Pedagogy” (2012). Keynote panel (with Madiha Tahir, Jonah Bossewitch, and Travis Mushett) at the Technology and Education Symposium, American University in Cairo.

Grants and Awards

Data Journalism Award — Canadian Association of Journalists (2020).
- Awarded for the “Tainted Water” series by the Institute for Investigative Journalism, Global News, Toronto Star, and others.
- I managed the work of six reporters and served on the IIJ editorial board; reporting was conducted by a team of 120 professional journalists, university instructors, and student reporters.

Research Grant — Tow Center for Digital Journalism (2015-16).
Amount: $30,000. 
Project: One-year study to understand how journalists use the encrypted whistleblowing platform SecureDrop. Research methods combined in-depth interviews with data scraped from the web.

Research Grant — Brown Institute for Media Innovation (2014-15).
Amount: $120,000.
Project (with Cecilia Reyes and Max Tucker da Silva): SearchLight, a tool to help investigative journalists report on algorithmic bias in search engines.

Doctoral Fellowship — Columbia University (2011-14).
- Full tuition and living stipend.

Medill Scholarship — Northwestern University (2009-10).
- Partial tuition.

James B. Angell Scholarship — University of Michigan (2004-07).
- Partial tuition.

Courses Taught

“Gender and Diversity in Engineering” (2023). Undergraduate lecture and lab course (27 students). Linköping University, division of Gender Studies (Tema-Genus).

“Journalism Practices & Standards” (2020). Graduate research methods course (35 students). UBC Journalism, Writing, and Media.

“Investigative Journalism” (2018-20). Graduate capstone course (3-5 students). UBC Journalism, Writing, and Media.

“Data Visualization” (2018-19). Graduate skills module (20 students). UBC Journalism, Writing, and Media.

“Integrated Journalism” (2018-19).Graduate intensive in basic reporting methods (35 students, teaching team of 6). UBC Journalism, Writing, and Media.

“Journalism Ethics and Leadership” (2018). Graduate lecture course (35 students). UBC Journalism, Writing, and Media.

“The Digital Newsroom” (2018). Upper-level undergraduate seminar/lab (5 students). Yeshiva University, English and Media Studies.

Journalism and Editing

Global Reporting Centre, Vancouver.Digital Security Lead (2019-21).

Institute for Investigative Journalism, Montreal.Data Editor (2018–21). link

Google Fonts and Google Design, New York.Writer (2017–18). link link link link link link

Columbia Journalism Review, New York.Writer (2016). link link

TriQuarterly Literary Journal, Chicago.Book Review Editor (2010–11). link link link

Egypt Today Magazine, Cairo.Assistant Editor and Copy Chief(2007–08).

Scholarly & Professional Associations

International Communication Association (ICA)Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR)European Communication Research Association (ECREA)Society for the History of Technology (SHOT)Society for Social Studies of Science (4S)National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting (NICAR)

Technical Skills

Code
Working knowledge of Python, Bash, R, JavaScript, PHP, Ruby, and Processing. General familiarity with Java, C, C++.

Markup
LaTeX, Markdown, Pandoc, XHTML, CSS.

Dev
Git, Docker, Vagrant.

Admin
Linux/Unix, Apache, Nginx, Ansible, SaltStack.

DB
MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB.

CMS
WordPress, Omeka, Jekyll, Automad.

Hardware
Physical computing (Arduino), sensors, basic circuit design.

Languages

English (native).
German (advanced written and spoken).
Swedish (basic written and spoken).
French (basic written and spoken).
Tibetan (basic spoken).
Arabic (basic spoken).