Matt DeButts is a PhD student in Communication and Knight-Hennessy Scholar. A former Beijing-based journalist from 2014-2019, Matt is interested in how government and media institutions shape public beliefs in the United States and China. Matt holds a B.A. in Law, Jurisprudence and Social Thought from Amherst College, and an M.A. in China Studies from Peking University. His journalistic work has been published in the Los Angeles Times, Vox, Foreign Policy, and elsewhere. Matt's research aims to use artificial intelligence to quantify government manipulation of language barriers. Specifically, his research examines how governments introduce censorship or propaganda via official translations and transliterations.
Department: Communication