Research

Upcoming talks and works-in-progress listed here. Navigate research accolades, publications, presentations, service, and press under the RESEARCH tab above.

For pre-prints and copies email crystalabidin[at]gmail[dot]com.

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UPCOMING TALKS

[conf paper] Abidin, Crystal. 2018. “Wild Child, Fame Game, Cash Dash: Genres of Celebrity Childhoods in Social Media Economies.” Digitizing Early Childhood International Conference 2018, Perth. July 9-13, 2018.

[mentoring session] Abidin, Crystal. 2018. [title tba – postgraduate mentoring session] Digitizing Early Childhood International Conference 2018, Perth. July 9-13, 2018.

[conf paper] Abidin, Crystal. 2018. “Digital Exotica: The politics and praxis of internet celebrity from East Asia to beyond.” 12th International ACS Crossroads in Cultural Studies Conference, Shanghai. August 12-15, 2018. <Abstract>

[invited instructor] Abidin, Crystal. 2018. “Understanding Internet Paralanguages through Content Analyses.” Digital Methods Summer School, University of Tartu, Tartu. August 21-25, 2018. <Register>

[invited instructor] Abidin, Crystal. 2018. “Understanding Internet Celebrities through Digital Ethnography.” Digital Methods Summer School, University of Tartu, Tartu. August 21-25, 2018. <Register>

[invited talk] Abidin, Crystal. 2018. [title tba – talk on latest book Internet Celebrity: Understanding Fame Online] Seminar Series, Department of Media and Communication, Lund University, Lund. September 5, 2018.

[guest instructor] Abidin, Crystal. 2018. [title tba – lecture on Influencers] A socio-cultural approach to producers and consumers in the digital age, Digital Business Unit, JIBS, Jönköping University, September 10, 2018.

[guest instructor] Abidin, Crystal. 2018. [title tba – lecture on Fan cultures] A socio-cultural approach to producers and consumers in the digital age, Digital Business Unit, JIBS, Jönköping University, September 11, 2018.

[guest instructor] Abidin, Crystal. 2018. [title tba – seminar on Influencers & Fan cultures] A socio-cultural approach to producers and consumers in the digital age, Digital Business Unit, JIBS, Jönköping University, September 12, 2018.

[guest instructor] Abidin, Crystal. 2018. [title tba – lecture on Selfies] A socio-cultural approach to producers and consumers in the digital age, Digital Business Unit, JIBS, Jönköping University, September 17, 2018.

[invited talk] Abidin, Crystal. 2018. [title tba – talk on latest book Internet Celebrity: Understanding Fame Online] Higher Seminar Series, Department of Media and Communication Studies, Södertörn University, Stockholm. September 18, 2018.

[guest instructor] Abidin, Crystal. 2018. [title tba – lecture on Internet paralanguages] A socio-cultural approach to producers and consumers in the digital age, Digital Business Unit, JIBS, Jönköping University, September 19, 2018.

[guest instructor] Abidin, Crystal. 2018. [title tba – seminar on Selfies & Internet paralanguages] A socio-cultural approach to producers and consumers in the digital age, Digital Business Unit, JIBS, Jönköping University, September 20, 2018.

[guest lecture] Abidin, Crystal. 2018. [title tba – talk on an anthropological approach to influencer marketing] Fashion Brand Management Course, Swedish School of Textiles, University of Borås, Borås. September 27, 2018.

[conf paper] Abidin, Crystal. 2018. “Yes Homo: Gay Influencers, Celebrity, and Activism on YouTube.” AoIR 2018, Association of Internet Researchers, Montreal. October 10-13, 2018.

[conf paper] Tiidenberg, Katrin, and Crystal Abidin. 2018. “Unsalable popularity: Economies of NSFW visibility on Tumblr.” AoIR 2018, Association of Internet Researchers, Montreal. October 10-13, 2018.

[conf paper] Leaver, Tama, and Crystal Abidin. 2018. “From YouTube to TV, and Back Again: Viral video child stars and media flows in the era of social media.” AoIR 2018, Association of Internet Researchers, Montreal. October 10-13, 2018.

[roundtable] Abidin, Crystal, Ariadna Matamoros-Fernández, Tim Highfield, and Kate Milner. 2018. “Pictogramic cultures and economies on the internet.” AoIR 2018, Association of Internet Researchers, Montreal. October 10-13, 2018.

[experimental session] Leaver, Tama, Crystal Abidin, Tim Highfield, Kath Albury, Theresa Senft. 2018. “Visual Social Media Pedagogies-in-Practice.” AoIR 2018, Association of Internet Researchers, Montreal. October 10-13, 2018.

[keynote] Abidin, Crystal. 2018. “Influencers and the materiality of youth digital cultures in Singapore.” Youth Futures: Belonging and Connections, Alfred Deakin Institute, Deakin University, Melbourne. November 15-16, 2018. <Link | Abstract>

[conf paper] Abidin, Crystal. 2018. “Oppressed, Oratorical, Outlandish: Chinese Privilege activism through entertainment in Singapore’s Influencer ecology.” Chinese Privilege in Singapore, Asia Research Institute, Singapore. December 12-13, 2018.

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WORKS UNDER REVIEW

[special issue] Private messages from the field: Moral confessions and ethical dilemmas in digital ethnography – with Gabriele de Seta (Academia Sinica)

[journal article] Yes Homo: Gay Influencers, Homonormativity, and Queerbaiting on YouTube

[journal article] Influencers reclaim liminal celebrity: MunahHirziOfficial, Parody politics, and Micro- minority representation

[journal article] Somewhere Between Here and There: Visibility Labour and Literacies Between Academia and the Influencer Industry

[journal article] Grief hype-jacking: Influencers, Attention Economies, and the Commodification of Grief

[journal article] Si Gin Na (“Brat”): Social Media & the juvenile insolence in Singapore – with Liew Kai Khiun (Nanyang Technological University)

[journal article] History of the digital camera in Singapore 1994-2006 – with Connor Graham (Asia Research Institute)

[journal article] #nofilter, #inreallife: Influencers and Porous Authenticity on Instagram

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WORKS IN PROGRESS

[edited book] Me-diated Inter-faces: representation, presentation, and embodiment online – with Katie Warfield (Kwantlen Polytechnic University) and Carolina Cambre (Concordia University)

[special issue] Between art and application: Exploring the histories and cultures of emoji vernacular – with Joel Gn (Singapore University of Social Sciences)

[journal article] Glamour and Grotesque: Influencers and the anatomy of plastic surgery advertorials

[journal article] From YouTube to TV, and Back Again: Viral Video Child Stars and Media Flows in the Era of Social Media – with Tama Leaver (Curtin University) 

[journal article] Privacy for Profit: Influencers, Personae and the Lifecycle of Commoditized Privacy

[book chapter] L8r H8r: Fans, haters, and ephemeral solidarity in Influencer wars

[book chapter] The Great Good Childhood Birthday: Commemoration, commercialism, and moral parenting in Influencer advertorials

[book chapter] “Hey YouTube, welcome to my exclusive private home tour”: Influencers, Domestic space vlogs, and Continuums of disclosures

[book chapter] Fast phone fashion: Fashion marketing in the age of smartphones

[book chapter] My Instagram Husband: Influencers, Gendered fame, and Networked tensions amidst commodified romance

[book chapter] Screens, Streams, Scenes, Screams: Labouring sociality among young women Influencers

[book chapter] From womb to cradle: Branded pregnancies, neonatal care, and the pre-personhood of micro-microcelebrities

[conference paper] Oppressed, Oratorical, Outlandish: Chinese Privilege activism through entertainment in Singapore’s internet popular culture

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PROJECTS IN PROGRESS

An oral history of punk in Singapore – with Liew Kai Khiun (Nanyang Technological University) in partnership with The Substation

Digital folklore in Singapore – in partnership with the Asia Research Institute

Cultures of YouTube in Asia

The commodification of weddings and aspirational housing

Aspirational tensions: Young couples and homemaking in a tightly regulated ecology

Young people and grief in digital spaces

Not just a pretty boy: Male Influencers in a hyper­feminized economy

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