Samantha Jo Fried, Ph.D.
ABOUT ME
I'm Associate Director of the Civic Studies Program and Assistant Research Professor at the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life at Tufts University. I'm most interested in how people create, decide on and validate, and utilize knowledge together -- and how they take up that knowledge to make change.
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I received my doctorate in Science and Technology Studies (STS) from Virginia Tech. I also hold a Graduate Certificate in Remote Sensing. I am a member of the Alliance for Civics in the Academy (ACA) at the Hoover Institution.
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I belong to two cats, Croissant and Cake Pop. I catalog my life via monthly playlists. If you must put me in a box, I'm an INF/TJ and an Enneagram Type 1w9.
What I'm Working On
This Spring 2026 semester, I am piloting a small and experimental course on Civic Knowledge. The course will explore the relationship between knowledge and democracy through readings and discussion, and also through action: we will co-create knowledge with a Somerville, MA community partner. Our goal is to better understand what makes something knowledge and why, and how to engage that knowledge beyond the university, in practice.
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I have been known to begin a satellite-related knitting project or two. You can view some of my other knitting projects here. I've also drawn knit things: the knitted illustrations on this website are my creations.
Teaching and Writing
Stay tuned for my Civic Knowledge syllabus. I also taught a class in FA23 whose syllabus I'm especially proud of. It was a reading-and-discussion-based course on Progress.
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I also started a non-interactive blog, which I somewhat abandoned. But I may still write things, and can read them if you'd like.