Kesara uses data and digital methods to understand how platforms, algorithms, and AI shape culture.
She is interested in how emerging technologies transform production and circulation of information. She researches how online images and narratives shape belief systems and ideology. She is developing her understanding of responsible AI and AI safety, and tracking AI industry trends and dynamics.
MA Digital Humanities dissertation examining how YouTube's recommendation algorithms shape pathways between podcast content and manosphere content.
To audit YouTube's algorithm, I designed 4 walkthrough sessions with VPN and login status configurations to account for watch history and location bias. I viewed podcast bro content, clicked on recommended videos, and documented recommendation pathways in an image grid which was coded by topic and by appearance of manosphere-related figures.
Upcoming paper presentation at The Digital Conference 2026 at King's College London.
Group report exploring how text-to-image models (DALL-E 3, Stable Diffusion, Bing Image Creator) respond to "neutral" prompts about human bodies. This involved:
- Prompting strategy design: Plural vs singular prompts, positive vs negative adjectives, "neutral" descriptions.
- Content moderation analysis: Analysis of prompts that triggered content moderation messages and generated images that should have been flagged, identifying loopholes in the model's content policy and implications for policy compliance.
- Highlighting training data bias: Visualising outputs in a large image grid made embedded biases in training data visible.
The report was accepted and presented at Harvard Berkman Klein Center's ASML Spring Synthesizer (2025).
Built a Python sentiment analysis pipeline (Requests, BeautifulSoup, pandas, Vader, Matplotlib) to assess the neutrality or media bias of “neutral” news sources. I collected and scraped news headlines of the post-2024 US presidential election period from CNBC, Financial Times, Forbes, NewsWeek, and Wall Street Journal News.
A physical and digital zine on care in group work created by a 6-person student research team through a series of workshops. The zine has been distributed in King's College London and University of College London classes to help foster inclusive, caring, and better group learning.
Featured in a talking head video for Maria Than's Homage To Quan Âm providing contextual discussion on themes of cultural identity, spirituality, and religion. Conducted research into Vietnamese Buddhism and interviewed the artist about her practice to contribute to the exhibition's interpretive materials.
- Proofreader for artist Fadhel Mourali's The last basket makers from Risa: Crafting a Plural Kinship Along Tradition (2025), a book that documents the artist's process and situates their textile practice within queer and local narratives.
- Proofreader for the English translation of the Thai screenplay of Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Tropical Malady, 2004 Cannes Jury Prize winner, published in Tropical Malady: The Book (2019).
Automated Curriculum Audit Project: Researched, tested, and proposed the first university-wide automated curriculum audit measure sustainability integration across 60 departments, making the technical call to implement a keyword detection API. Designed visual maps and assets for the audit methodology in FigJam.
Emissions Methodology Research: Researched methodologies for calculating end-of-term student travel emissions — a calculation that had not been accounted for, contributing to the annual emissions report.
Engagement Data Analysis & Visualisation: Pre- and post-analysis of unstructured data relating to the curriculum audit and engagement data. Designed the first Power BI reports to track and visualise levels of membership and engagement for targeted marketing and comms.
Exhibition Production: Coordinated with 15 artists and 9 collective members to set up a 1-month long art-tech exhibition HardWired at Hypha Studios' Euston space. Led curated walks, presented the artworks that challenged existing understandings of our engagement with technological mediums and explored new ways of engaging with technology, platforms, and online communities.
Social Media: Created a social media plan, wrote content, and monitored the collective's Instagram, growing followers by 74% after the first week of promoting events through strategic posting; reached 7K accounts in January.
Grant Writing: Wrote proposal documents for funding grants and exhibition texts, securing 3K funding.
Awards Application Planning: Led project planning and management, set tasks and target deadlines for the 2021 UNESCO Heritage Awards team. Conducted interviews with Board members, conservation architects, and library members for the application. Wrote up the first draft of the application. The building received the 2022 UNESCO Cultural Heritage Conservation Award.
Data Management: Day-to-day maintenance of metadata and system processes on the library's database and automation software.
Social Media & Events: Coordinated fundraising events and created ad copies for concerts, book sales, farmers' market attracting 500+ guests.
Stakeholder Communication: Coordinated with authors, organising and tracking 120+ contact details and submissions for the Young Writers Awards. Presented membership and interest trends to the Board, informing buying decisions. Trained interns to deliver excellent visitor experience, liaise with stakeholders, and drive membership subscription.