Dr Kylie Jarrett

    Media Studies

    Associate Professor

    Iontas Building
    0.15

    Biography

    I am Associate Professor/Senior Lecturer and teach modules related to social media, subcultures and cultural theory. I am also Coordinator of the MA in Critical and Creative Media.

    My research focus is theorising the political economy of digital media and in particular the commercial Web, with an emphasis on digital labour. I am author of Digital Labor (Polity, 2022) and Feminism, Labour and Digital Media: The Digital Housewife
    (Routledge, 2016) applying Marxist feminist theories of domestic work to understand the practice of consumer labour. This was also translated into Portuguese as A Dona de Casa Digital: Feminismo, Trabalho e Mídias Digitais (Editora Politeia, 2021).

    With Susanna Paasonen and Ben Light, I am co-author of #NSFW: Sex, Humor and Risk in Social Media (MIT Press, 2019) - winner of the 2020 Association of Internet Researchers book award. With colleagues Ken Hillis and Michael Petit, I have explored  the commercial search industry, published in the book Google and the Culture of Search (Routledge, 2013). I have also published extensively on a variety of social media platforms, apps and websites.

    I am currently Working Group 1 Leader and on the Management Committee of the Platform Work Inclusion Living Lab (P-Will) COST Action. I was recently co-PI of a IRC/AHRC-UKRI UK-Ireland Collaboration in the Digital Humanities Networking project: Intersections: Feminism, Technology and Digital Humanities and am co-I on the Full Stack Feminism project which emerged from this network.

    I am also co-editor of the SAGE Handbook of Digital Labour (under contract, 2025).

    I am available to supervise research in all dimensions of online culture, gender and media, and questions of labour and cultural work.

    My media expertise is in user experiences of social media, the politics of the commercial Web, online sexuality, and gender issues relating to work in digital media industries.



    Research Interests

    My research focus is the critical analysis of the political economy of commercial digital media using various theoretical frameworks, but with an emphasis on feminist and Marxist approaches. My expertise is in the area of digital labour and cultural work, ranging from studies of social media users to platform workers and beyond. I also explore the cultural dimensions of user activity on social media as well as articulations of gender and sexuality in online practices.

    Research Projects

    Title Role Description Start date End date Amount
    Platform Work Inclusion Living Lab Management Committee member/Working Group 1 Leader The main objective of the Platform Work Inclusion Living Lab (P-WILL) is to build a European multistakeholder network including policymakers, industry leaders, civil society organisations and researchers, to foster the upsurge of alternative scenarios in the frame of platform work. 14/09/2022 13/09/2026
    Full Stack Feminism Co-I IRC/AHRC UK-Ireland Collaboration in the Digital Humanities 01/08/2021 31/07/2023 264470
    Intersections: Feminism, Technolgy and Digital Humanities PI 01/08/2020 31/05/2021 11950
    A History of Forgetting - Michael Kurzmeier PI 01/09/2019 31/08/2021 50333.28
    Creative Industries and the Digital Economy as Drivers of EU Integration and Innovation (CIDEII) Western European Regional Coordinator 01/01/2017 31/12/2019 60000
    Moderation for Fair Assessment in Transnational Learning and Teaching PI 01/01/2008 31/12/2010 220000

    Book

    Year Publication
    2022 Jarrett, Kylie (2022) Digital Labor. London: Polity.
    2021 Jarrett, Kylie (2021) A Dona de Casa Digital: feminismo, trabalho e mídia digital. Brazil: Editora Politeia.
    2019 Paasonen, Susanna, Kylie Jarrett and Ben Light (2019) #NSFW: Sex, Humor and Risk in Social Media. Massachusetts: MIT Press.
    2016 Jarrett, Kylie (2016) Feminism, Labour and Digital Media: The Digital Housewife. New York and London: Routledge. [DOI]
    2013 Hillis, Ken, Michael Petit and Kylie Jarrett (2013) Google and the Culture of Search. London: Routledge.

    Book Chapter

    Year Publication
    2023 Jarret, Kylie (2023) 'Die Reproduktion des digitalen Unternehmers: Digitale Arbeit als feminisierte Arbeit/Reproducing the Digital Entrepreneur: Digital Labour as Feminised Work' In: Theorien Des Digitalen Kapitalismus. Germany : Suhrkamp.
    2022 Light, Ben, Susanna Paasonen and Kylie Jarrett (2022) 'Rethinking Dick Pics' In: Introducing the New Sexuality Studies: Original Essays. London : Routledge.
    2021 Jarrett, Kylie (2021) 'Digital Ireland: Leprechaun economics, Silicon Docks and crisis' In: Routledge International Handbook of Irish Studies. London : Routledge.
    2019 Jarrett, Kylie (2019) 'Through the Reproductive Lens: Labour and struggle at the intersection of culture and economy' In: Digital Objects Digital Subjects: Interdisciplinary perspectives on capitalism, labour and politics in the age of Big Data. London : University of Westminster Press.
    2018 Jarrett Kylie (2018) 'Exploitation, alienation, and liberation: Interpreting the political economy of digital writing' In: The Routledge Handbook of Digital Writing and Rhetoric. London : Routledge. [DOI]
    2015 Jarrett, Kylie (2015) 'Devaluing Binaries: Marxist Feminism and the Value of Consumer Labour' In: RECONSIDERING VALUE AND LABOUR IN THE DIGITAL AGE. BASINGSTOKE : PALGRAVE.
    2015 Jarrett, Kylie (2015) 'Let's Express Our Friendship by Sending Each Other Funny Links instead of Actually Talking: Gifts, Commodities, and Social Reproduction in Facebook' In: Networked Affect. Cambridge, MA : MIT Press.
    2014 Jarrett, Kylie (2014) 'A Database of Intention?' In: Society of the Query Reader: Reflections on Web Search. Amsterdam : Institute of Network Cultures. http://networkcultures.org/wpmu/portal/publication/society-of-the-query-reader-reflections-on-web-search/
    2009 Jarrett, Kylie (2009) 'Through An Interface Darkly: Consumer power and agency on the commercial Web' In: Ruggill,J.C., McAllister K. S. and Chaney, J. R(Eds.). The Computer Culture Reader. : Cambridge University Press.
    2008 Hicks, Margaret and Kylie Jarrett (2008) 'Providing Induction, Orientation and Professional Development of all Staff Involved in Transnational Teaching' In: Teaching in Transnational Education: Enhancing learning for offshore and international students. New York : Routledge.
    2006 Jarrett, Kylie (2006) 'The Perfect Community: Disciplining the eBay user' In: Everyday eBay: Culture, consumption and collecting online. New York : Routledge.
    2004 Jarrett, Kylie (2004) 'Battlecat Then, Battlecat Now: Temporal shifts, hyperlinking and database subjectivities' In: Into the Blogosphere: Rhetoric, Community and Culture of Weblogs. Minnesota, MN : University of Minnesota. [Link] [Full-Text]

    Peer Reviewed Journal

    Year Publication
    2022 Jarrett, K. (2022) 'Showing off your best assets: Rethinking commodification in the online creator economy'. Sociologia del lavoro, . [Link] [DOI]
    2019 Paasonen, Susanna, Ben Light and Kylie Jarrett (2019) 'The Dick Pic: Harassment, Curation, and Desire'. Social Media + Society, 5 . [DOI] [Full-Text]
    2018 Jarrett, Kylie (2018) 'Laundering women's history: A feminist critique of the social factory'. First Monday, 23 (3). [DOI] [Full-Text]
    2017 Jarrett, Kylie (2017) 'Le travail immatériel dans l’usine sociale: une critique féministe'. 13 :12-25. [Full-Text]
    2016 Jarrett, Kylie (2016) 'Queering alienation in digital media'. First Monday, 21 (10). [DOI] [Full-Text]
    2016 Jarrett, Kylie and Dylan Wittkower (2016) 'Economies of the internet'. First Monday, 21 (10). [DOI] [Full-Text]
    2016 Jarrett, Kylie and Jeneen Naji (2016) 'What Would Media Studies Do? Social media Shakespeare as a technosocial process'. BORROWERS AND LENDERS: THE JOURNAL OF SHAKESPEARE AND APPROPRIATION, . [Link] [Full-Text]
    2014 Jarrett, Kylie (2014) 'The Relevance of Women's Work: Social Reproduction and Immaterial Labor in Digital Media'. Television and New Media, 15 (1):14-29. [DOI]
    2014 Jarrett, Kylie (2014) 'The Alternative to Post-Hegemony: Reproduction and Austerity's Social Factory'. CULTURE UNBOUND: JOURNAL OF CURRENT CULTURAL RESEARCH, 6 (1). [DOI] [Full-Text]
    2008 Jarrett, Kylie (2008) 'Interactivity is evil! A critical investigation of web 2.0'. First Monday, 13 (3). [Full-Text]
    2008 Jarrett, Kylie (2008) 'Beyond broadcast yourself (TM): The future of YouTube'. Media International Australia, 126 :132-144. [Full-Text]
    2009 Jarrett, Kylie (2009) 'Private Talk in the Public Sphere: Podcasting talk as broadcasting talk'. COMMUNICATION, POLITICS AND CULTURE, 42 (2):116-135. [Full-Text]
    2005 Jarrett, Kylie (2005) 'Ordering Disorder: ninemsn, hypertext and databases'. M/C JOURNAL, 7 (6). [Link] [Full-Text]
    2003 Jarrett, Kylie (2003) 'Labour of Love: An archaeology of affect as power in e-commerce'. Sociology, 39 (4):335-351. [Full-Text]

    Other Journal

    Year Publication
    2020 Voros, Florian, Susanna Paasonen, Kylie Jarrett and Ben Light (2020) 'Puritanisme sexuel et capitalisme numérique: Entretien avec Susanna Paasonen, Kylie Jarrett, Ben Light' Revue Française de Socio-Économie, 25 (2) :167-174.
    2018 Pencole, Marc-Antoine and Kylie Jarrett (2018) 'Des salaires pour facebooker » : du féminisme à la cyber exploitation – entretien avec Kylie Jarrett' Periode, . [Link]
    2018 Jarrett, K and MA Pencole (2018) 'Kylie Jarrett: Feminism, Labor and Digital Media' Historical Materialism, . [Link]

    Conference Publication

    Year Publication
    2007 Wahlstrom, Kirsten, Sue Tyerman, Rebecca Witt and Kylie Jarrett (2007) Proceedings of the 2007 International Conference on Frontiers in Education Providing Experiential Learning through Transnational Teamwork

    Conference Contribution

    Year Publication
    2023 (2023) Intersectional Feminist Perspectives on Platform Work: Roundtable discussion Congreso Economia Feminista Barcelona, 16/03/2023-17/03/2023.
    2023 Jarrett, Kylie (2023) Digital Platforms and Gender Relations: A New Space for Feminist Resistance newpolcom Workshop Series Royal Holloway University of London/onilne, 26/01/2023-26/01/2023.
    2022 Jarrett, Kylie (2022) From Commodification to Assetisation: Reconciling the delights and disturbances of digital labour Digital Delights and Disturbances Lecture Series John Cabot University, Rome, Italy, 29/11/2022-29/11/2022.
    2022 Jarrett, Kylie (2022) From Commodification to Assetisation: Understanding Creative Labour in the Digital Economy Creative People, Products and Places Seminar Series University of South Australia, 11/08/2022-11/08/2022.
    2022 Jarrett, Kylie (2022) Work and Social Justice in Art, Craft and Design UAL dialogue seminar series London/online, 26/04/2022-26/04/2022.
    2022 Jarrett, Kylie (2022) Showing Off Your Best Assets: Rethinking Commodification on OnlyFans Rajapinta Association seminar series Finland/online, 09/02/2022-09/02/2022.
    2021 Jarrett, Kylie (2021) Crossing the Streams: Understanding the platform economy across the gendered divide Platform Labour in Urban Spaces project seminar series University of Hertfordshire, UK/online, 09/03/2021-09/03/2021.
    2021 Jarrett, Kylie (2021) Cheap Digital Labour ST Global Knowledge in Action webinar Exploring Data and Labor in an Unequal World US/online, 29/03/2021-29/03/2021.
    2021 Jarrett, Kylie (2021) What Money Can’t Buy: The Assetisation of Bella Thorne Digital Economies | Digital Intimacies NCAD/online, 29/04/2021-29/04/2021.
    2021 Jarrett, Kylie (2021) Do the Hustle: Justifying Digital Labour Organização: Laboratório de Pesquisa DigiLabour (DigiLabour) seminar series Brazil/Online, 25/01/2021-25/01/2021.
    2020 Jarrett, Kylie (2020) Hashtags, boundaries and sex: #NSFW social media and the policing of sexuality Digital Culture 2020: Boundaries University of Nottingham, UK - CANCELLED DUE TO COVID, 01/05/2020-02/05/2020.
    2020 Jarrett, Kylie (2020) The Productivity of Social Reproduction: social reproduction theory as method for understanding work Gender ARC Univeristy of Limerick - CANCELLED DUE TO COVID, 01/04/2020-01/04/2020.
    2020 Jarrett, Kylie (2020) Association of Internet Researchers: Life Annual conference of the Association of Internet Researchers Dublin - hosted online due to Covid, 26/10/2020-30/10/2020.
    2020 Jarrett, Kylie (2020) Roundtable on Digital Labour Research Group on Collaborative Spaces Milan, 11/09/2020-11/09/2020.
    2019 Valerie Heffernan, Kira Collins & Kylie Jarrett (2019) Mediating Motherhood Mediating Motherhood Maynooth University, .
    2019 Jarrett, Kylie (2019) Haters Gonna Hate: The Political Economy of Online Harassment Resisting Digital Culture: Dystopias, Distortions, Disconnections King's College London, 10/05/2019-10/05/2019.
    2019 Jarrett, Kylie (2019) Drinking the Kool-Aid: Slashies, social reproduction and justification Critical Digital and Social Media Research Umeå, Sweden, 06/03/2019-08/03/2019.
    2019 Jarrett, Kylie (2019) Affective Assets: Influencers and the Negotation of Commodification Assetization of Work: Varieties of Human Capital University of Sydney, Australia, 15/04/2019-16/04/2019.
    2018 Jarrett, Kylie (2018) The Work of Not-Labour Theoretical Traditions and New Technologies International Symposium University of Paris-Nanterre, 20/06/2018-21/06/2018.
    2018 Jarrett, Kylie (2018) Risk, Responsibility and Resentment: The Political Economy of Online Harassment Valente Centre for Arts and Sciences Visiting Fellowship Bentley University, 04/10/2018-04/10/2018.
    2017 Jarrett, Kylie (2017) Geek Masculinity, Unprotected Settings and Cognitive Capitalism: The political economy of online harassment University of South Australia Hawke EU Centre Public Seminar University of South Australia, Adelaide, 24/10/2017-.
    2017 Jarrett, Kylie (2017) The Value of ‘Er Indoors: Quantification, domestic work and discipline The Quantified Self in Precarity: Work, Technology and What Counts Middlesex University, London, 13/10/2017-.
    2017 Jarrett, Kylie (2017) The Digital Housewife: Labour at the Intersection of Culture and Economy Digital Objects, Digital Subjects: An Interdisciplinary Symposium on Activism, Research & Critique in the Age of Big Data Capitalism University of Westminster, London, 20/05/2017-21/05/2017.
    2017 Jarrett, Kylie (2017) Understanding Digital Labour: the exploited, the inalienable, the non-binary Understanding Audiences FuJo: The Institute for Future Media and Journalism, DCU, 07/12/2017-07/12/2017.
    2016 Jarrett, Kylie (2016) Passions of the Social Factory: a Feminist Critique The Passions of Capitalism: Subjectivity in production and the production of subjectivity in contemporary capitalism Pavia, Italy, 21/03/2016-23/03/2016.
    2016 Jarrett, Kylie (2016) Don’t Get Mad, Get Even: Regendering the laboring subject Media Cultures Research Cluster launch University Leicester, UK, .
    2016 Jarrett, Kylie (2016) Marx is Not the Only Fruit: Queering the alienation thesis Cultural Studies & Critique Marxiste: Dialogues, Tensions, Confrontations Centre Pompidou, Paris, 30/06/2016-01/07/2016.
    2016 Jarrett, Kylie (2016) Magdalen Laundries and the Digital Social Factory Glitch Festival RUA Red Gallery, Tallaght, .
    2015 Jarrett, Kylie, Stephanie Rains, Maria Pramaggiore, Jorie Lagerwey, Emma Radley, Diane Negra (2015) Console-ing Passions Console-ing Passions Dublin, 18/06/2015-20/06/2015.
    2014 Jarrett, Kylie (2014) Uses of Use-Value: A Marxist Feminist Contribution to Understanding Digital Media Virtual Work COST Action: Value in the Digital Age Tel Aviv, Israel, 15/06/2014-17/06/2014.
    2013 Jarrett, Kylie (2013) Search for the Google God: Metaphysics and the Social Imaginary of Search Society of the Query 2 Amsterdam, 07/11/2013-08/11/2013.
    2012 Jarrett, Kylie (2012) The Relevance of 'Women's Work' Crossroads: Assocation for Cultural Studies annual conference Paris, 02/07/2012-06/07/2012.
    2011 Jarrett, Kylie (2011) Knowing Google: Understanding the power of search University of Salford graduate seminar Manchester, UK, .
    2011 Jarrett, Kylie (2011) Knowing Google Dublin Business School Dublin, .
    2010 Jarrett, Kylie (2010) Managing the Multiples: Understanding the Symbolic Power of Google 3rd Digital Cultures Workshop: Navigating Multiplicity University of Salford, UK, 01/07/2010-02/07/2010.
    2008 Jarrett, Kylie (2008) Broadcasting the Neoliberal Self: YouTube, Agency and Power Video Vortex Ankara, Turkey, 09/10/2008-10/10/2008.
    2009 Dr Kylie Jarrett (2009) It's Censorship, But Not as We Know It: Google and the Control of Information Centre for Media Studies, NUI Maynooth, Arts, Celtic Studies & Philosophy, An Foras Feasa, Dept. of Spanish Master class, .

    Blog

    Year Publication
    2021 The IFTe collective (2021) The Chain - an intersectional feminist Digital Humanities project. BLOG
    2020 do Nascimento Grohmann, Rafael and Kylie Jarrett (2020) Trabalho digital em lentes feministas marxistas: entrevista com Kylie Jarrett. BLOG [Link]

    Book Review

    Year Publication
    2021 Jarrett, Kylie (2021) A Precarious Game: The Illusion of Dream Jobs in the Video Game Industry. LONDON: BREV [DOI]
    2019 Jarrett, Kylie (2019) Public privates: feminist geographies of mediated spaces. ABINGDON: BREV [DOI]
    2016 Jarrett, Kylie (2016) Putting the Inalienable to Work: Labour and Life in Contemporary Capitalism. BREV [Link]
    2016 Jarrett, Kylie (2016) Review: Uberworked and Underpaid. BREV [Link]
    2010 Jarrett, Kylie (2010) YouTube: Online video and participatory culture. BREV [DOI] [Full-Text]

    Electronic Book

    Year Publication
    2016 Leyda, Julia, Rosalind Galt and Kylie Jarrett (2016) Post-cinema, Digitality, Politics. Falmer, UK: ELEB [Link] http://reframe.sussex.ac.uk/post-cinema/

    Encyclopedia Entry

    Year Publication
    2020 Jarrett, Kylie (2020) Digital Labor in International Encyclopedia of Gender, Media and Communication. ENC

    Magazine Article

    Year Publication
    2014 Jarrett, Kylie (2014) Google: een database van intenties?. Amsterdam: MA [Link]

    Electronic Article

    Year Publication
    2013 Jarrett, Kylie (2013) Cead Mile Mugail - A Hundred Thousand Muggings. ELEA [Link] [Full-Text]
    2012 Jarrett, Kylie (2012) Accounts of Accountability. ELEA [Link]

    Thesis

    Year Publication
    2003 Jarrett, Kylie (2003) Windows (TM) Shopping: Deconstructing the empowered e-commerce consumer. University of South Australia: THES
    Certain data included herein are derived from the © Web of Science (2023) of Clarivate. All rights reserved.

    Professional Associations

    Description Function From / To
    Association of Internet Researchers Member -
    MUSSI Associate member -
    Sexualities and Gender Research Network Member -
    Technology and Society Research Network Member -
    Political Economy of Work and Social Inequality Research Cluster Member -

    Honors and Awards

    Date Title Awarding Body
    01/01/2020 Nancy Baym Book Award Association of Internet Researchers

    Committees

    Committee Function From / To
    Graduate Education Committee Faculty representative 01/01/2023 -
    Equality, Diversity and Interculturalism Department co-representative 01/09/2022 -
    Academic Council Faculty of Arts elected representative 01/05/2013 - 01/09/2017
    Equality, Diversity and Interculturalism Committee Member 01/01/2018 - 01/01/2019

    Other Activities

    Description
    University of Westminster Press Critical Digital and Social Media series editorial board member
    University of Bristol Press Quantified Societies and Selves Book Series Associate Editor

    Teaching Interests

    I teach primarily in the areas of digital media and cultural theory, including the modules Social Media Storytelling, Media & Cultural Theory, Fans and Subcultures and the MA module Media Theory. I also have a background in academic staff development in Teaching and Learning. I occasionally run curriculum development seminars for interested staff.

    I am available to supervise in all areas relating to digital media but particularly research into the political economy, labour and gendered aspects of its industries.


    Current doctoral supervision:

    Chloe Eaton: Concepts of Family in Irish Family Vlogging


    Recent Students

    Graduation date Name Degree
    2023 Tugce Bidav PhD
    2022 Michael Kurzmeier PhD
    2016 Patrick Boyle PhD