Opening Keynote

Julia Ticona, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Communication
University of Pennsylvania

Julia Ticona is an assistant professor at the Annenberg School for Communication, where her research investigates the ways that digital technologies shape the meaning of precarious work. She uses qualitative methods to examine the role of tech in the construction of identity and inequality for low-wage workers. Previously, she was a postdoctoral scholar at the Data & Society Research Institute, where she collaborated on an amicus brief on behalf of Data & Society for Carpenter vs. U.S. before the U.S. Supreme Court. She is an Associate Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture. She received her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Virginia, where she was a member of the Society of Fellows, and her B.A. from Wellesley College. You can find her work in the Journal of Communication, New Media & Society, the International Journal of Communication, and Information, Communication, and Society. She has also published op-eds and essays in Wired, Dissent, FastCompany, and Slate. She has also been called on as an expert by local and national media outlets, including: The New York Times, NPR, The Nation, and The Philadelphia Inquirer.