About
My academic work examines political mobilization online. In particular, I study political mobilization arising from non-political, social sites online. Most of the places I study are highly populated (over a million people), anonymized in some way, and social—filled with people who arrived in the space to hang out or share.
I finished my Ph.D. in Political Science at the University of Washington, Seattle in 2011. My completion of the Ph.D. is entirely due to the incredible support and guidance I received from my committee–Joel Migdal, Phil Howard, Michael McCann, and Gina Neff–and a wide range of family and friends. I am now a post-doc in the Jackson School of International Studies working with the amazing Sara Curran.
This website serves as a professional resource, and, as such, it contains many standard academic resources, such as my academic CV, my teaching experience, and my publication list. I have tried to minimize the text and avoid reproducing my “packet” of academic materials online wholesale. All of this material is available–just email me.
However, this online space also serves as a place to highlight the weird and wonderful world of online communities. While I love my academic research, the demands of social science mean leaving much of the chaos and joy I’ve found online out of my writing. Thus, while this site showcases my academic work and scholar self, the blog’s purpose is to give everyone a window into the bizarre, beautiful, and sometimes equally horrifying and inspiring landscape that increasingly envelopes and extends our “real” lives. Additionally, it gives me an opportunity to reflect on my own personal experiences. In the last six years, I have found close friends, a spouse, and life changing ideas online.
If you have any questions for me, or would like to chat, please feel free to email me at jlbeyer at gmail dot com. You are also welcome to follow me on my very neglected twitter account at jlbeyer.