Brannan

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Personal information

Last name

Brannan

Position

Graduate Student and Graduate Associate at the Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship (CNDLS)

Institution

Georgetown University

Website

https://blogs.commons.georgetown.edu/kmb256/

Brief Bio

Kelsey is a graduate student at Georgetown University's Communication, Culture & Technology (CCT) Master of Arts program. There she will explore the relationship between media development and cultural identity, including media policy and community development practices. She is particularly interested in the ways in which ICT accessibility directly affects literacy and social inclusion.

Full Bio

Current Research:

At CCT I am continuing to study the relationship between media development and cultural identity, specifically the way in which location based software and social media are impacting the literacy, agency, and movement of people across the globe. During this Spring Semester (2012) I am taking two graduate courses, Technology & Social Exclusion and Ethnography and Archival Research: A Grounded Theory Approach. In Technology & Social Exclusion class I am looking at the intersection of inequality and online privacy policy. For my first paper I examine how the self-Googling phenomenon produces inequalities for those that do have the electronic literacy to manage their online presence. For paper 2, I am researching policy recommendations for the future of Facial Recognition Technology in relation to personal privacy. Both of these papers highlight the way technology is informing the way manage our reputations and social relationships online. In the Ethnographic research class, I am conducting interviews and gathering data from the recent development of subcultural lesbian and queer social networking sites in Washington, DC. My main questions are: How are these sites altering community development? Are the tools diversifying the LGBT community or segregating it? What is the relationship between online and offline LGBT communities in DC? These projects will become chapters in my thesis project, which will use both ethnographic research and social network analysis methodologies to describe and reveal the importance of these networks in forming LGBT subcultures and identities.

CNDLS Fellowship:

In addition to my current research, I also work part-time at the Center for New Designs and Learning and Scholarship (CNDLS) under the CCT/CNDLS Media Fellowship. At CNDLS I work with the Georgetown Commons team to improve and enhance the “back-end” functionality of wikis, blogs, and ePortfolios, as well as assess the way new media technologies, such as Wikipedia editing, Omeka, Dipity, and Google+ help students apply 21st century digital learning skills in the classroom. We have reached a point in higher education where it is crucial to think critically about how the ubiquity of new media technologies is not only affecting the way students conduct and produce their academic work, but also the way we can assess their impact.

Future:

After my MA degree in CCT at Georgetown, I hope to work professionally in media policy and educational development. Eventually, I would like to travel back to Australia to work with the Australian Human Rights Commission and get my PhD in Media Studies.