My work asks how ideas become common sense and what it takes to change them. I write about the distance between the language of justice and the distribution of power, online and irl.
Book project · Proposal in development
What happens when the language of antiracism becomes a way to protect the people and institutions it is supposed to challenge?
This book project examines how performances of racial justice preserve white comfort and institutional power. Across digital culture, higher education, nonprofits, and corporate DEI, I explore how the demand to make change comfortable can limit what actually changes.
Information, Communication & Society · 2024
With Francesca B. Tripodi and Alice E. Marwick, UNC CITAP
How do platforms become tools for making false claims appear credible? Through cases involving Twitter, Google Scholar, and Yandex, we examine how invitations to “do your own research” draw audiences into the production and validation of disinformation.
Read the article ↗Public essay · The Chronicle of Higher Education · 2020
With Tressie McMillan Cottom
Read the essay ↗Public essay · The Cheats Movement · 2020
Public essay · Digital Sociology @ VCU · 2017
Thesis · VCU Scholar Commons · 2020
Using the National Policy Institute as a case study, I examined how far-right white identity groups sought legitimacy for extremist ideas through mainstream news coverage, research organizations, and digital scholarly databases.
Read the thesis ↗Research, editorial, and production support · 2017-2022
I recruited participants and assisted with data collection for a study of Black women entrepreneurs’ use of digital tools in lieu of traditional forms of capital, using MAXQDA for qualitative analysis.
Read “The Hustle Economy” ↗I also conducted literature reviews supporting Dr. Cottom’s expert testimony on for-profit colleges before the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, and provided background research, editing, and social media marketing for Hear To Slay, her podcast with Dr. Roxane Gay.
Research and editorial support · 2017–2018
I conducted literature reviews for a study of multinational corporations’ exploitation of African institutions and provided proofreading and editorial support for a book on the organizational culture of nongovernmental organizations in Africa.
American Sociological Association · 2021
Using the National Policy Institute as a case study, I examined how far-right white identity groups sought legitimacy for extremist ideas through mainstream news coverage, research organizations, and digital scholarly databases.
View the presentation ↗Sociologists for Women in Society · 2021
This proposal examined how universities’ assumptions about an unencumbered “ideal student” can exclude students who are mothers, shaping their sense of belonging and their ability to inhabit the student role.
View the presentation ↗
Analyzing how Instagram users discuss #environmentaljustice.
With Nicole H. O’Donnell and Aurora Higgs.
International Communications Association Annual Conference
· Virtual · May 27, 2021.
Explaining QAnon: White Supremacist Use of Digital Technologies.
Race, Space, Place Initiative 2020 unConference
· Virtual · November 19–21, 2020.
The Aesthetics of the Right: A Comparative Analysis
of Right-Wing Websites.
VCU Sociological Seminar in Practice
· Richmond, VA · December 6, 2019.
Deep Roots: Mapping the Networks of the Right.
Eastern Sociological Society Annual Conference
· Baltimore, MD · February 22–25, 2018.