Rianna Walcott
Assistant Professor, Communication
Education
Ph.D., Digital Humanities, King's College London
Research Expertise
Diaspora
Digital Cultures
Digital Humanities
Race and Ethnicity
Rianna Walcott is an Assistant Professor of Communication at the University of Maryland, Associate Director of the Black Communication and Technology (BCaT) Lab, and a former DISCO Network Postdoctoral Fellow. An alumna of the London Arts and Humanities Partnership (LAHP), Dr. Walcott earned her PhD in Digital Humanities at King's College London for her research on Black Black (and specifically Black British) communication practices across social media platforms, locating the evolution of a hybrid ‘Black British’ identity against the wider Black diaspora.
Publications
Technoskepticism: Between Possibility and Refusal
New publication by the DISCO Network, "Technoskepticism: Between Possibility and Refusal"
Author/Lead: Catherine Knig…, Rianna WalcottTechnoskepticism explores possibility and refusal in relation to new technologies, covering a wide range of pressing topics from Munchausen syndrome by TikTok to wellness apps to online communities to AI. This book was co-written by an intergenerational group of 14 scholars in the DISCO Network, a consortium of investigators working to envision a new anti-racist and anti-ableist digital future. Technoskepticism features scholarship by COMM Associate Professor and Black Communication and Technology (BCaT) Lab Director Dr. Catherine Knight Steele, and COMM Assistant Professor and Associate Director of the BCaT Lab Dr. Rianna Walcott.
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