Research

Just Like Us: Digital Debates on Feminism and Fame


Just Like Us: Digital Debates on Feminism and Fame is my first book. It examines the rise of celebrity feminism, its intersections with digital culture, and its complicated relationships with race, sexuality, capitalism, and misogyny. Through in-depth analyses of debates across social media and news platforms, I map the processes by which celebrity culture, digital platforms, and feminism transform one another. As I analyze celebrity-centered stories ranging from “The Fappening” and the digital attack on actress Leslie Jones to stars’ activism in response to #MeToo, I demonstrate how celebrity culture functions as a hypervisible space in which networked publics confront white feminism, assert the value of productive anger in feminist politics, and seek remedies for women’s vulnerabilities in digital spaces and beyond. Just Like Us asserts that, together, celebrity culture and digital platforms form a crucial discursive arena where postfeminist logics are unsettled, opening up more public, collective modes of holding individuals and groups accountable for their actions.

Evangelical content creators

My current research focuses on fundamentalist Evangelical content creators, particularly their attitudes toward gender, sexuality, and the feminist movement.

I have presented work from these projects at AoIR 2022 and will be presenting further data at ICA 2023. Please reach out with any questions or comments!


Celebrities and online harassment

My early work explores instances of misogynistic and racist harassment of entertainment celebrities, with a focus on digital discourses around the ensuing controversies. These projects inspired Just Like Us.


Influencers and content creators

More recently, my research focus has shifted to social media influencers and content creators.


Additional publications

Harnessing your feminist rage: A multimedia assignment for upper-level courses

Working the red carpet: a framework for analysing celebrities’ red carpet labour (with Jimmy Draper)

Stars as texts: Analyzing celebrities across platforms

Advertisement

Blog at WordPress.com.