Dr. Jess Rauchberg’s research examines how social inequalities inform labor and production in digital media industries.
Rauchberg’s work employs theoretical analysis and critical qualitative methods—such as textual analysis of media, discourse analysis, and autoethnography—to understand how marginalized influencers and content creators navigate work on digital platforms. Her academic writing appears in top-ranked peer-reviewed journals, including New Media & Society, the Journal of Gender Studies, Human-Machine Communication, Feminist Media Studies, and First Monday. Her scholarship is graciously supported by a Microsoft Research Grant.
Her current book project, Platform Hygiene: How Algorithmic Ableism Shapes Creator Economies, investigates how longstanding ableist ideas about value, work, and visibility in western culture are reproduced in content creation, influencing, livestreaming, and other modes of digital labor. This project is currently represented by Lauren MacLeod at Aevitas Creative Management.
A public-facing scholar, Rauchberg has provided over 40 expert interviews with global media outlets, including the BBC, New York Times, Washington Post, Rolling Stone, Town & Country, and CNN, in addition to televised appearances on Good Morning America and PBS. Rauchberg’s public writing appears in Newsweek, The Conversation (US & Canadian editions), and Mid-Theory Collective. She is available to speak on the record with journalists for stories about creator culture, digital consumer behavior, and platform politics.
Rauchberg is currently an assistant professor of communication technologies at Seton Hall University, where she also holds an affiliate appointment in Women and Gender Studies. At Seton Hall, she primarily instructs undergraduate and graduate-level courses on digital media, technology, culture, and identity. She is a global member of the TikTok Cultures Research Network and a co-founding member of the Content Creator Scholars Network.
Dr. Rauchberg received her doctorate in Communication, New Media, and Cultural Studies from McMaster University in 2023, where she also earned a graduate diploma in Gender Studies and Feminist Research. Her doctoral thesis was supervised by Dr. Sarah Brophy. While at McMaster, Rauchberg held research appointments in the Pulse Lab, Sherman Centre for Digital Research, and an NSERC-CREATE fellowship with the Smart Mobility in Aging Populations program. She holds an MA in Communication from the University of South Florida and a BA (cum laude) from George Mason University’s Carter School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution.
dr. jess rauchberg 