Critique, Identity, Power: How Black Twitter Users Construct Race Online

This event is supported by the CALS Office for Diversity and Inclusion and is part of the CALS Dean’s Inclusive Excellence Seminar Series, which highlights academic excellence through inclusive science and creates a platform for extended discussions on how our science can and should be transformative in leading to best practices and policies that support social, economic, environmental and climate justice.

The CALS Dean’s Inclusive Excellence Seminar Series and the Department of Communication present: A conversation with Amber Hamilton

Talk Abstract

In this talk, Amber M. Hamilton draws on 24 months of digital ethnographic fieldwork within Black Twitter to define a theory of "doing race" in the digital sphere. She demonstrates how Black users employ digital platforms to talk about their lived experiences as racially marginalized subjects in the U.S. through close reading and quantitative textual analysis. In doing so, this talk will delineate the role of new media technologies in undergirding racialized communication processes in online spaces.

Speaker Bio

Amber M. Hamilton (she/her) is a Ph.D. Candidate in Sociology at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Her research is primarily concerned with delineating the role of digital platforms in undergirding the racial structure in the United States. Her work in this area has been published in Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, MIT Tech Review, and Slate Magazine. In support of her research, she has been awarded fellowships the University of Minnesota's Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship, Interdisciplinary Doctoral Fellowship, and the Institute For Advanced Study. Hamilton holds a master's degree in Sociology from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, and a bachelor's degree in Sociology from The Ohio State University.

Zoom details

• https://cornell.zoom.us/j/96117850812?pwd=ZTRaSTNPZ2xraEc3K1BaYUo1aXBXQT09

Meeting ID: 961 1785 0812

Passcode: 328103