About
I'm an Assistant Professor in the Department of Information Culture & Data Stewardship at the University of Pittsburgh.
Previously, I was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s Center on Digital Culture and Society. I earned my PhD in Communication at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.
My work employs critical-historical approaches to digital media, examining the prehistories and afterlives of data-intensive systems – from social media platforms to AI systems. My book project investigates the process of social media platform closure to argue that systems like platforms shape social life and the cultural record even after they are presumed to be dead.
My research has been published in outlets including New Media & Society, Social Media & Society, FAccT, Convergence, Feminist Media Studies, the International Journal of Communication, and elsewhere. (Many of these are open access, but please email for PDFs if not!) I’ve been drawn on as an expert at the intersection of technology and society for publications including the New York Times, the Atlantic, VICE, and the Los Angeles Times.
I’ve collaborated with institutions on research projects or research-based creative work, including fellowships from Harvard University's Library Innovation Lab, the ACM History Committee, and the USC Center for Science, Technology, and Public Life. I've also worked with computing institutions on their oral history collections (including the Computer History Museum and the A.M. Turing Awards), and serve on the editorial board of the IEEE Annals of the History of Computing.
︎ francescorry@pitt.edu