Dr. Sarah Edwards is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication and Media Studies. Her research is grounded in critical cultural studies and sociotechnical perspectives and focuses on the influencer and tech industries, platforms, and labor. She currently teaches courses on social media, AI literacy, and media law and ethics. Her first book project examines shifting expectations around labor in the influencer industry and creator economy, and her research has been published in or is forthcoming from Social Media + Society, The Handbook of Technology, Media, and Democracy, and The Audiovisual Lexicon.
She is a founding member of the Content Creator Scholars Network (CCSN) and a former research intern with the Social Media Collective at Microsoft Research-New England.
Selected Scholarship
Forthcoming. Creator Economies and Labor Precarity. In P. Napoli, R. Caplan, and K. Rogerson (Eds.) Handbook of Technology, Media, and Democracy. De Gruyter Brill Press.
2022. Branded Dreams, Boss Babes: Influencer Retreats and the Cultural Logics of the Influencer Para-Industry. Social Media + Society, open access
2018. Are We (Still) the World? Service Learning and the Weird Slot in Student Narratives of Study Abroad. In R. Shepherd (Ed.) Cosmopolitanism and Tourism: Rethinking Theory and Practice. Lexington Books.
Courses Taught
MEDI 255-Social Media
MEDI 240-Media Law and Ethics