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Headshot of Arash Barfar

Arash "Archer" Barfar

Associate Professor of Information Systems, Director of PhD in Information Systems Program

Summary

Arash "Archer" Barfar is an Associate Professor of Information Systems and Director of the PhD Program.
Archer's research is animated by a single conviction: that information technology should be put in service of social good. To date, his efforts have included studying how AI and data-driven systems can be harnessed to benefit society, or restrained to prevent harm. His current work extends that mission to a problem eclipsed by the rush toward advanced AI: how to use digital technologies to combat food poverty and hunger in Africa—a crisis that still shapes the survival and dignity of millions.
His work has appeared in leading journals including Decision Support Systems (twice), Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association (JAMIA), Information Processing & Management, Expert Systems with Applications (twice), Communications of the Association for Information Systems, Computers in Human Behavior, Big Data (twice), and Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review.
Archer has designed and delivered advanced coursework at the graduate and doctoral levels in machine learning, predictive analytics, and data-driven decision-making. He holds a PhD in Information Systems from the University of South Florida.

Selected recent publications

  • Barfar, A., Alderman, M., & Edberg, D. (2026). Qualitative Research Meets AI: A Mixed-Methods Approach to Explaining Semi-Structured Decisions. Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 58(1), 94.
  • Barfar, A., & Sommerfeldt, L. (2026). Propaganda by prompt: Tracing hidden linguistic strategies in large language models. Information Processing & Management, 63(2), 104403.
  • Alderman, M., Barfar, A., & Edberg, D. (2025). Explaining Compassionate Release: A Machine Learning Study of Sentencing Modifications & Judicial Decision Making. Loy. LAL Rev., 59, 1.

Awards

  • 2025 – Graduate Faculty of the Year (Online Business Analytics Program)
  • 2024 – Faculty of the Year (Information Systems)
  • 2023 – Graduate Faculty of the Year (Information Systems)
  • 2020 – Graduate Faculty of the Year (Information Systems)
  • 2017 – College of Business Faculty of the Year
  • 2017 – Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching
  • 2017 – Graduate Faculty of the Year (Information Systems)
  • 2015 – Students’ List of Instructors with the Greatest Impact (University of South Florida)