At Northwestern, he is Director of the Media, Technology and Society Program as well as an affiliate of the Institute for Policy Research, the Buffett Institute, and the SONIC research group. Aaron studies the organization of collective action and collaboration online, with a focus on understanding peer production communities. His research has been supported by the National Science Foundation and Microsoft Research has received awards or honorable mentions from professional associations including the International Communication Association, the Association for Computing Machinery, the American Sociological Association, and the American Political Science Association.