Hello! I’m Dr. Jess Rauchberg, a researcher and content creator. My scholarship asks questions about social inequalities and work in digital media industries. I’m interested in understanding how political oppressions inform creative labour and digital consumer behaviour.
I’m primarily a theoretical and critical qualitative researcher—meaning I’m interested in understanding the histories, politics, and sensemaking that shape contemporary cultural industries and consumer behaviours. I use approaches such as textual analysis of media, discourse analysis, and autoethnography.
My academic writing appears in top-ranked peer-reviewed journals, including New Media & Society, the Journal of Gender Studies, the European Journal of Cultural Studies, Feminist Media Studies, and First Monday. I also serve as an associate editor of Creator & Influencer Studies, the first peer-reviewed academic journal dedicated to scholarship centering content creators, influencers, and digital content production.
I’m currently working on two scholarly books. The first book, Platform Hygiene: How Algorithmic Ableism Shapes Creator Culture, 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 labour. Platform Hygiene is currently under advanced contract with Duke University Press and represented by Lauren MacLeod at Aevitas Creative Management. I’m also the co-editor of Disability Media Cultures: A Disability Studies Reader, which is currently under contract with NYU Press.
As a public-facing scholar, I’m committed to sharing ideas and connecting with audiences beyond academia. I’ve provided 80 expert interviews with global media outlets, including the BBC, the Guardian, New York Times, Washington Post, Rolling Stone, Town & Country, and CNN, in addition to televised appearances on Good Morning America, NBC, CNN, and PBS. My public writing appears in Newsweek, The Conversation (US & Canadian editions), and Mid-Theory Collective. I’m available to speak on the record with journalists for stories about creator culture, digital consumer behaviour, and platform politics.
I’m a Lecturer (assistant professor) in the School of Media and Communication at the University of Leeds. I previously held a tenure-track assistant professorship at Seton Hall University in the United States, where I was cross-appointed in the College of Human Development, Culture, and Media and the programme in Women and Gender Studies. Whilst at Seton Hall, my research was supported by a Microsoft Research Grant. I primarily instruct undergraduate and graduate-level modules on digital media, promotional labour, and cultural industries. I also supervise graduate students working on these topics. I’m a global member of the TikTok Cultures Research Network and a co-founding member of the Content Creator Scholars Network.
I received my doctorate in Communication, New Media and Cultural Studies from McMaster University in 2023, where I also earned a graduate diploma in Gender Studies and Feminist Research. My doctoral thesis was supervised by Dr. Sarah Brophy. Whilst at McMaster, I 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. I hold 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.