My research explores issues of power and inequality in digital systems, institutions, and cultures. It is motivated by three key questions:
How, and in what forms, does power circulate through digital ecosystems?
How are structural inequalities (re)produced within and across digital contexts?
How do power and inequality shape what happens—and for whom—in digital spaces?
My work has appeared in the peer-reviewed journals New Media & Society, Technology and Human Values, Social Media + Society, International Journal of Communication, First Monday, Feminist Media Studies, and Mobile Media and Communication. My research and expertise have been featured in global media including Wired, Slate, The Atlantic, The Guardian, Time, and the BBC. My work has also been cited in policy documents published by the United Nations, European Parliament, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (UK), and the Law Commission (UK).
My full CV is available here.
Digital Cultures & Platform Politics
I have been researching digital cultures since 2010, and my work in this area has a particular focus on issues of gender and race. My published work on the politics of inclusion and exclusion within digital cultures has covered topics including internet memes, influencer communities, and online misogyny.
My research also explores the politics of how digital platforms & formats are developed and used. In this work, I explore how seemingly ‘trivial’ digital objects reflect significant power dynamics. I have researched the cultural significance of selfies and the animated GIF file format, as well as racialized representation in emoji. My current work on platformed solidarity (with Dr Tim Highfield) explores how digital platforms and brands participate in “woke capitalism” by changing their affordances in response to current events.
Digital Skills & Digital Economy
A key focus of my current research explores the relationship between digital skills & digital economy. Since 2018, I have been researching the global “learn to code” phenomenon, which I have conceptualized as the coding fetish. This research interrogates the widespread claim that technical skills offer a gateway to equity for marginalized and/or under-represented groups in an increasingly digital economy. This research, partially funded by a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions Fellowship, puts the current coding obsession into historical context and explores structural power dynamics within coding bootcamps in the United States and United Kingdom. In doing so, it explores how well-meaning tech initiatives can reproduce some of the same inequalities they aim to combat. My published work on this topic has appeared in Science, Technology, and Human Values, Internet Histories, and Information & Culture.
(Generative) AI and Society
The newest facet of my research agenda takes a critical approach to AI in societal contexts. I am currently examining how portrayals of generative AI in advertising and news media have consequences for how we understand what GAI is and who it is for. This work also illustrates how relying on existing understandings of algorithmic technologies and their users can foreclose a more equitable and imaginative future for these deeply impactful systems.
I am also a co-investigator on a project funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council Bridging Responsible AI Divides (AHRC BRAID) Initiative. In partnership with the British Library, Open Data Institute, Sheffield City Council, and Eviden, this project aims to build shared learning, values and principles for the implementation of responsible AI in a range of institutional contexts.