Jean Burgess

Biography

Jean Burgess studies the social and cultural transformations associated with digital media technologies. Her work has tracked the rise and contested development of the world’s most powerful social media platforms, the broader ideological and political debates associated with them, and their uses both in public communication and in the most intimate areas of everyday life. In the course of this work, she has fostered new digital humanities methods appropriate to the increasingly platform-centred and automated media and communication environment. She has held a series of leadership positions in major research centres in this field, including as Deputy Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation (2012-2015), founding Director of QUT’s Digital Media Research Centre (2015-2020), and Associate Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society (from 2020). As well as her training in communication and cultural studies, she has a professional background (and degree level qualifications) in music performance.