education
SM: Massachusetts Institute of Technology: Comparative Media Studies (expected 2013)
Thesis: Distributed Denial of Service Actions and the Challenge of Civil Disobedience on the Internet
Committee: Ethan Zuckerman, James Paradis
BA: University of Pittsburgh: History and Philosophy of Science (2010) summa cum laude
St John’s College (Annapolis): Philosophy, History of Science and Mathematics (August 2005-December 2007)
research interests: Internet culture; hacktivist technology and practices; hacker culture; social movements; cyberlaw; information security; technology in the media; philosophy of technology
awards + grants
Fellow, Berkman Center for Internet and Society, Harvard University (2012-2013)
CMS/Civic Media Summer Research and Development Grant (Summer, 2012): Awarded to support summer research and development work at the Electronic Frontier Foundation
Center for Civic Media Research Assistantship, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2011-present): Full tuition and stipend.
J.K. and Gertrude Miller Award, Department of English, University of Pittsburgh (2009): Awarded for “The Problem with ‘Completely Original.’”
Brackenridge Research Fellowship, University Honors College, University of Pittsburgh (2009): Awarded to complete original research on remix practices and IP law.
experience
research
Electronic Frontier Foundation, San Francisco, CA (Summer, 2012): Activism intern under Rainey Reitman
Center for Civic Media, MIT Media Lab, Cambridge, MA (2011-present): Research assistant to Sasha Costanza-Chock and Ethan Zuckerman
Berkman Center for Internet and Society, Cambridge, MA (2010-2011): Research assistant to Jonathan Zittrain
Berkman Center for Internet and Society, Cambridge, MA (Summer, 2010): Summer intern working with: ICANN Accountability & Transparency Review; Digital Natives; Radio Berkman; Jonathan Zittrain; William Fisher (on user innovation)
University Honors College, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA (Summer 2009): Brackenridge Research Fellow
teaching
Harvard Law School, Cambridge MA (2011): Teaching assistant, Ideas for a Better Internet under Jonathan Zittrain
Stanford Law School, Stanford, CA (January 2011): Teaching assistant, Ideas for a Better Internet (joint Harvard Law School-Stanford Law seminar), under Jonathan Zittrain
Harvard Law School, Cambridge, MA (2010): Teaching assistant, Identifying Difficult Problems in Cyberlaw, under Jonathan Zittrain
University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA (2010): Teaching assistant, Advanced Digital Composition, under Jamie Skye Bianco, English Dept
University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA (2010): Instructor, Russian Fairy Tales, under David Birnbaum, Slavic Department
St John’s College, Annapolis, MD (2006-2007): Lab assistant, Freshman & Junior Lab, under Alan Pichanick and Jonathan Badger
professional
Steel Penny Games, Austin, TX (2008): Lead Narrative Designer
myYearbook.com, New Hope, PA (2006-2007):Head Content Creator & User Wrangler
publications, presentations, posters
peer-reviewed
“‘LOIC Will Tear Us Apart’: The Impact of Tool Design and Media Portrayals in the Success of Activist DDOS Attacks,” American Behavioral Scientist (published online 15 March 2013) DOI: 10.1177/0002764213479370
other publications
“If Hackers Didn’t Exist, Governments Would Have to Invent Them,” The Atlantic (5 July 2012)
“Guy Fawkes Mask-ology,” HiLoBrow (30 April 2012)
“The Visual Life of Occupy Wall Street,” In Media Res (7 February 2012)
Jonathan Zittrain and Molly Sauter, “Will the U.S. Internet get a “kill switch”?” MIT Technology Review (4 March 2011)
Jonathan Zittrain and Molly Sauter, “Everything You Need to Know About Wikileaks” MIT Technology Review (9 December 2010)
Dan Jones and Molly Sauter, “Wikileaks and the Information Wars” (podcast) (producer) Radio Berkman (Harvard) (8 December 2010)
Dan Jones and Molly Sauter, “Jonathan and Larry Take on…Net Neutrality!” (podcast) (producer) Radio Berkman (Harvard) (15 October 2010)
Dan Jones and Molly Sauter, “I Am Not A Lawyer: Competition!” (podcast) (producer, co-host) Radio Berkman (Harvard) (16 September 2010)
Dan Jones and Molly Sauter, “Jonathan Zittrain and Larry Lessig Take on…Competition!” (podcast) (producer) Radio Berkman (Harvard) (9 September 2010)
Jason Hughes and Molly Sauter, Bruiser and Scratch, (video game) (co-narrative designer) Steel Penny Games, WiiWare (December 2008)
talks + presentations
“Kevin Mitnick, the New York Times, and the Media’s Conception of the Hacker,” panel presentation, Media In Transition 8, MIT (May 2013)
““LOIC Will Tear Us Apart”: The Impact of Tool Design and Media Portrayals in the Success of Activist DDOS Attacks,” Berkman Center Lunch Talk, Harvard University, (January 2013) (video)
“The Ethics of Activist DDOS Actions,” solo talk, Chaos Communication Congress (29c3), (December 2012) (video)
“What You Say Is What You Get: Why Using ‘Hacker’ as a Synonym for ‘Criminal’ Is Killing Political Speech Online,” Ignite talk, News Foo Camp (November 2012) (video)
“Activist DDOS Attacks: When Similes and Metaphors Fail,” solo talk, HOPE NUMBER 9 (July 2012) (video) (slides/notes)
“Lolitics: Politics and Memes,” panel (moderator) ROFLcon III (May 2012) (video)
“DDOS as an Activist Tactic: Anonymous in Context,” panel presentation (panelist, session chair), PCA/ACA National Conference (April 2012) (April 2012)
“Policy Effects of the Media Portrayals of Hacktivists,” solo presentation, SXSW Interactive (March 2012) (slides/audio)
“Jungian and Folkloric Imagery in Nina Sadur’s Short Fiction,” guest lecture (University of Pittsburgh, Slavic Literature) (December 2009, April 2010)
“Participatory Culture and Interactivity in Literature,” (poster) Undergraduate Research Fair (UHC, University of Pittsburgh) (April 2010)
“Cultural Sustainability and the Modern Media,” TEDxUniPittsburgh (University of Pittsburgh) (December 2009)
“Participatory Culture and Interactivity in Literature,” Brackenridge Research Lecture (UHC, University of Pittsburgh) (July 2009)
“The Alice Problem,” Through the Looking Glass (UHC, University of Pittsburgh) (invited) (May 2009)
conferences
NewsFoo (2012): Invited Participant, Phoenix, AZ
Digital Media and Disruptive Publics Workshop (2012): Invited Participant, Nairobi
Global Voices Citizen Media Summit 2012: Invited Participant, Nairobi
ShmooCon 2011: Staff, Washington DC
Four Ideas for a Better Internet (2011): Co-Organizer, Stanford University, CA
Penguicon (2009-2010): Staff
languages, skills, capacities
human languages
French (conversant and literate), Mandarin Chinese (elementary), Ancient Greek (elementary)
computer languages, design + productivity programs
Processing, Audacity, Inform 7, Adobe Flash, Actionscript, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere, Soundbooth, HTML/XML/CSS, WordPress
volunteer work + professional activities
Harvard-MIT-Yale Cyberscholars Working Group (2011-present): Co-coordinator
International Game Developers Association (2008-2010): Assistant Editor, Game Writers Quarterly; copyeditor, IGDA Newsletter
University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA (2009-2010): University Honors College Lecture Coordinator; History and Philosophy of Science Association President
Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, PA (2009-2010): Scientific Illustrator, Section of Mollusks, Section of Vertebrate Paleontology