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Carolina Are

Visiting Lecturer

School of Arts and Social Sciences Department of Sociology

Contact details

Address

Carolina Are A113, College Building
City, University of London
Northampton Square
London EC1V 0HB
United Kingdom

About

Overview

Dr. Carolina Are is a researcher, activist, blogger and pole dance instructor. Her PhD focused on online abuse and conspiracy theories in conversations surrounding high-profile, unsolved criminal cases through the observation of a highly engaged and toxic subculture. She currently researches on issues surrounding online subcultures, trolling, online conspiracy theories, social media moderation and algorithm bias. Her most recent work focused on finding frameworks to effectively moderate social media without affecting freedom of expression, and on platforms' moderation and censorship of nudity and sexuality.

Qualifications

  1. Introductory Certificate In Teaching In Higher Education, City, University London, United Kingdom, Jun 2018
  2. PhD, City, University of London, United Kingdom, Sep 2017 – Feb 2021
  3. MA Criminology, University of Sydney, Australia, Jul 2016 – Jun 2017
  4. BA Journalism, City, University London, United Kingdom, Sep 2011 – Jul 2014

Employment

  1. Visiting Lecturer, London College of Communications, Mar 2019 – present
  2. Visiting Lecturer, City, University of London, Sep 2018 – present
  3. Visiting Lecturer, City, University London, Jan 2018 – present
  4. Account Director, The Atticism PR, Oct 2016 – Jun 2017
  5. Social Media Strategist, The Defectors, Jun – Oct 2016
  6. Account Executive, Manifest London, Jan 2015 – Apr 2016
  7. Social Media Assistant, Futureboard Consulting, Nov 2013 – Jun 2014

Award

  1. Undergraduate Awards (2015) Undergraduate Award for Media and Journalism

Languages

English (can read, write, speak, understand spoken and peer review) and Italian (can read, write, speak, understand spoken and peer review).

Publications

Publications by category

Chapter

  1. Are, C. (2019). Fire WERK With Me. In Volpert, M. and Kempt, H. (Eds.), Rupaul's Drag Race and Philosophy Sissy That Thought Popular Culture and Philosophy. ISBN 978-0-8126-9478-9.

Journal articles (6)

  1. Are, C. (2021). The Shadowban Cycle: an autoethnography of pole dancing, nudity and censorship on Instagram. Feminist Media Studies. doi:10.1080/14680777.2021.1928259.
  2. Are, C. (2020). A “Chosen” Hope with a “Gingerbread” Outcome: Democratization of (Media) Power in Buffy The Vampire Slayer as a Metaphor of Online Abuse on High-Profile Criminal Cases. Slayage, 18.2(Summer/Fall), pp. 1–33.
  3. Are, C. (2020). How Instagram’s algorithm is censoring women and vulnerable users but helping online abusers. Feminist Media Studies, 20(5), pp. 741–744. doi:10.1080/14680777.2020.1783805.
  4. Are, C. (2020). A corpo-civic space: A notion To address social media’s corporate/civic hybridity. First Monday. doi:10.5210/fm.v25i6.10603.
  5. Are, C. (2019). Patterns of media coverage repeated in online abuse on high-profile criminal cases. Journalism pp. 146488491988127–146488491988127. doi:10.1177/1464884919881274.
  6. Are, C. (2019). Book review: John Mair, Tor Clark, Neil Fowler, Raymond Snoddy and Richard Tait (eds) Anti-social media? The impact on journalism and society. Journalism, 20(4), pp. 633–634. doi:10.1177/1464884919828859.

Professional activities

Events/conferences (11)

  1. MozFest 2021. (Seminar) Online (2021). Chair.
    Paper: Shadowbans, nudity, censorship and moderation: how can we effectively moderate social media content without affecting freedom of speech?
    Author: Carolina Are
  2. Algorithms For Her. (Conference) King's College London (2020). Invited speaker.
    Paper: Alg-whore-ithms: How Instagram's algorithm is censoring women and vulnerable users but helping the alt-right after anti-sex trafficking US laws
    Author: Carolina Are
    Description: Half an academic's recommendations to prevent algorithm bias, half a campaigner's experience with censorship, Alg-whore-ithms is about Instagram's fear of sex after FOSTA/SESTA.
  3. International Criminology Conference 2018. Washington DC (2019). Invited speaker.
    Paper: The Politics and Ethics of Social Media Trolling Research: Challenges and New Frameworks
    Author: Carolina Are
  4. Eurocrim 2019. (Conference) (2019). Invited speaker.
    Paper: When Online Abuse and Conspiracy Theories Collide
    Author: Carolina Are
  5. Gikii 2019. (Conference) Queen Mary University, London (2019). Invited speaker.
    Paper: The Law of Meta-Shade in Crossover Facebook Group Fire WERK With Me
    Author: Carolina Are
  6. Digital Innovation and Mental Health. (Conference) London (2019). Panel Member. Invited speaker.
    Paper: Indicators of Online Abuse on High Profile Criminal Cases
    Author: Carolina Are
  7. RIPE 78. Reykjavik (2019). Invited speaker.
    Paper: Indicators of Online Hate Speech and Why It Should Be Regulated
    Author: Carolina Are
  8. Engage Europe's INsPIrE Academic Conference. (Conference) Brussels (2018). Invited speaker.
    Paper: How do social media facilitate the spreading of conspiracy theories and fake news? A case study of flaming and #McCann
    Author: Carolina Are
  9. Data Natives 2018. City, University of London (2018). Invited speaker.
    Paper: Online Abuse
    Author: Carolina Are
  10. International Journalism Festival. (Conference) Perugia (2015). Panel Member. Invited speaker.
    Paper: #WeRunThis: Millennial Media
    Author: Carolina Are
    Co-authors: Costanza Maio; Chiara Peccini; Giorgia Poperhem; Francesca Prandelli
  11. ECREA. (Conference) Lisbon (2014). Invited speaker.
    Paper: How did the UK's most followed journalists use Twitter to comment on Margaret Thatcher's death?
    Author: Carolina Are

Keynote lecture/speech

  1. Designing Feminist Chatbots to Tackle Online Abuse. University of the Arts London's Creative Computing Institute (2020). Joined Feminist Internet and UAL's CCI to present my research in order to help the students in the intensive create feminist chatbots to tackle online abuse.

Online articles (8)

  1. Facebook’s free speech myth is dead – and regulators should take notice. (2021). The Conversation
  2. RuPaul’s Drag Race is inventing a whole new internet subculture and language. (2019). The Conversation
  3. How “RuPaul’s Drag Race” changed the way we speak. (2019). Quartz
  4. RuPaul’s Drag Race is inventing a whole new internet subculture and language. (2019). The Conversation
  5. The Rise Of NoFap: Why Young Men Are Quitting Masturbation. (2019). The Huffington Post UK
  6. Has RuPaul’s Drag Race’s toxic fandom gone too far? (2019). SLEEK Magazine
  7. How no-show students could be killing the university lecture. (2019). The i Paper
  8. Research intelligence: how to promote your work online. (2019). Times Higher Education