ABOUT
Sarah is a PhD candidate studying media and cultural studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the Department of Communication Arts. Her research interests center on the social media entertainment industry, branding and promotional culture, platformization, creator culture, and globalization.
Her dissertation examines the technologies of production and imagination of the nation-state in the era of social media entertainment to consider how practices like influencer marketing, industrial actors like intermediaries and infomediaries, and platforms like Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok have been leveraged not only as tools used to shape nation brands and consumer-citizens’ subjectivities, but also as technologies used to construct broader national and transnational formations. She recently completed an internship with the Social Media Collective at Microsoft Research-New England under the supervision of Dr. Nancy Baym.
When she's not reading, writing, or teaching, Sarah is usually hanging out with friends and family, eating breakfast at her favorite local greasy spoons, watching reality TV/vlogs/Instagram stories/Tik Toks, or placating her cat, Cowpie.