Dr. Siva Mathiyazhagan is a Research Assistant Professor at the School of Social Policy and Practice and serves as the Associate Director of the SAFELab at the University of Pennsylvania. Previously, he was a Rebooting Social Media Assembly Fellow (2022-23) at The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. Dr. Siva strategizes and facilitates glocal partnerships to promote social innovations and research projects, accelerating their impact within local communities and transnational tech-social work researchers. He specializes in tech social work research, focusing on promoting human rights and social justice in emerging technologies.
Dr. Siva's research revolves around child rights in emerging technologies and digital media for community wellbeing and development. He employs youth-led community-centered transdisciplinary approaches to prevent caste and racial bias and counter misinterpretation of social media content by BIPOC youth, to promote safe and inclusive offline and online communities. Additionally, Dr. Siva co-creates tech social work policies and social work ethical considerations for Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and the Metaverse.
Beyond his academics, Dr. Siva Mathiyazhagan is the Founder-Director of the youth-led non-profit organization, Trust for Youth and Child Leadership (TYCL) International, based in India and the USA. He serves as a TYCL representative to the United Nations. Dr. Siva holds a master's in Social Work (MSW) and a Ph.D. in Social Work, with a specialization in child-centered community development from Pondicherry Central University, India. He nurtures a love for coastal travel and enjoys listening to Tamil traditional folk music.
