Jess Rauchberg, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Communication Technologies
College of Human Development Culture and Media
Dr. Jess Rauchberg’s work is concerned with the cultural, political, and economic impacts of new media technologies.
One of Dr. Rauchberg’s current projects investigates the idea of “crip data” as a methodological intervention that interrogates how computational systems are grounded in and reproduce ableist and racist biases in the ways they are trained to read, program, and value user-generated data. Her invocation of crip data also amplifies the subversive work of disabled creators whose labor challenges the devaluing of their user data as an ontological lack. She has also published work on issues of representation in screen and digital media, in addition to analyses of power and labor in organizations.
An expert in the realm of critical disability studies, creative labor, and platform studies, Dr. Rauchberg’s writing is featured in top peer-reviewed publications such as New Media & Society, Feminist Media Studies, the Journal of Applied Communication Research, First Monday, the Journal of International and Intercultural Communication, and Studies in Social Justice, in addition to other journals and edited collections. Her writing, scholarship, and service have received recognition from leading professional organizations in communication and media studies, including the National Communication Association, the International Communication Association, Console-ing Passions, the Western States Communication Association, and the Southern States Communication Association. She is a global member of the TikTok Cultures Research Network and serves as the Division Secretary for the National Communication Association’s Critical and Cultural Studies Division.
Dr. Rauchberg’s scholarship is currently supported by a Microsoft Research Grant.
Education
- Ph.D., Communication, New Media, and Cultural Studies, McMaster University
- M.A., Communication, University of South Florida
- B.A., Conflict Analysis and Resolution (cum laude), George Mason University
Classes Taught
Scholarship
Fellowships
- 2023-Microsoft Research Grant
- Selected Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles
Selected Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles
- Alper, M., Rauchberg, J.S., Simpson, E., Guberman, J. & Feinberg, S. (2023, online first). TikTok as algorithmically mediated biographical illumination: Self-discovery and autism diagnosis on #Autisktok. New Media & Society, 1-19.
- D’Souza, R.A., Rauchberg, J.S., & Nieto-Fernandez, B.A. (2023, online first). The labor of diversity in 2020-21 U.S. tenure-track Communication jobs. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 1-19.
- Newman-Griffis, D., Rauchberg, J.S., Alharbi, R.M., Hickman, L., & Hochheiser, H. (2023). Definition drives design: Disability models and mechanisms of bias in AI technologies. First Monday, 28(1).
- Rauchberg, J.S. (2022). “Lena Dunham is trash”: White feminist misogynoir and the limitations of #MeToo’s hashtag activism. The Popular Culture Studies Journal, 10(2), 123-141.
- Rauchberg, J.S. (2022). A different girl, but she’s nothing new: Olivia Rodrigo and posting imitation pop on TikTok. Feminist Media Studies, 22(5), 1290-1294.
- Rauchberg, J.S. (2022). Imagining a neuroqueer technoscience. Studies in Social Justice, 16(2), 370-388.
- D’Souza, R.A. & Rauchberg, J.S. (2020). Neoliberal values & queer/disability in Margarita with a Straw. Journal of International and Intercultural Communication, 13(2), 183-196.
Selected Book Chapters
- Gardner, P.M. & Rauchberg, J.S. (2023). Feminist, postcolonial, and crip approaches to Human-Machine Communication methodology. In A. Guzman, R. McEwen, & S. Jones (eds.), The SAGE Handbook of Human-Machine Communication (pp. 252-260), SAGE.
- Rauchberg, J.S. (2022). #Shadowbanned: Queer, trans, and disabled creator responses to algorithmic oppression on TikTok. In P. Pain (ed.), LGBTQ Digital Cultures: A Global Perspective (pp. 196-209), Routledge.
Invited Presentations
- "Artificial Intelligence and Higher Education.” Seton Hall University Teaching, Learning, and Technology Center. November 2, 2023.
- “Generative Artificial Intelligence as a Creator: A Toolkit:” (with Zoë Glatt). The Promises and Perils of Generative AI for the Creator Economy, Cambridge, MA. October 23, 2023.
- “Beyond algorithmic ableism: Platform moderation as quantum media.” Illinois College. Virtual. April 11, 2023.
- “Selfies, stories, strategies: The communicative practices of disabled content creators disrupting the authenticity bind.” Content Creators, Digital Labour, and Online Identities, Lewis and Ruth Sherman Centre for Digital Scholarship. Virtual. May 27, 2022.
- “Crip technoscience as co-design: Justice informed approaches to health, aging, and technology.” NSERC-CREATE sMAP Public Symposium, McMaster University. Virtual. June 1, 2021.
Accomplishments
Academic Distinctions
- 2023-Top Paper, Identity, Inclusion, and Social Justice Division, Southern States Communication Association
- 2021-Nominee, Donald P. Cushman Memorial Award, National Communication Association
- 2021-Top Student Paper, Organizational Communication Division, National Communication Association
- 2020-Top Paper, Activism and Social Justice Division, National Communication Association
- 2020-Top Reviewer, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies Interest Group, International Communication Association
- 2020-Top Student Paper, Organization for Research on Women and Communication, Western States Communication Association
- 2019-Elias and Vivian Drake Nader Award, University of South Florida
- 2019-Outstanding Departmental Service, University of South Florida
- 2018-Top Paper, Disability Issues Caucus, National Communication Association