Rianka Singh

I am an assistant professor in the Department of Communication & Media Studies at York University. I hold graduate appointments in York and Toronto Metropolitan’s Joint Graduate Program in Communication and Culture and in the Science and Technology Studies department at York.  

With Sarah Sharma, I am co-editor of Re-Understanding Media: Feminist Extensions of Marshall McLuhan (DUKE UP, 2022). I have also published my work in the Canadian Journal of Communication, Feminist Media StudiesFirst Monday and ADA

I am currently working on my monograph Platform Feminism and the Politics of Elevation. In it, I unpack the relationship platforms and feminist politics.  Platform Feminism addresses two key areas of investigation. First, I examine the history of elevated surfaces in order to discern how power has been mediated by platforms in various contexts through time. Second, I explore contemporary intersectional feminist activism that is organized around factors of care, safety and survival rather than the amplifying logics of the platform.

Publications

Book

Sharma, Sarah and Rianka Singh. 2022. Re-Understanding Media: Feminist Extensions or Marshall McLuhan. Duke University Press.  

Book Chapters

Singh, Rianka and Sarah Banet-Weiser. “Sky High: Platforms and the Feminist Politics of Visibility.” (in Re-Understanding Media).

Peer Reviewed Publications

Singh, Rianka. 2021. “Rethinking Platform Power.” Canadian Journal of Communications

Singh, Rianka. 2020. “Resistance in a Minor Key: Care Survival and Convening on the Margins.” First Monday, 5, (4).

Dyer-Witherford, Nick, Kristy Milland, Lily Irani, Alessandro Gandini, and Rianka Singh. 2019. “Checking in on Log Out: Reflections on Platform Labour.” Notes From Below, 7.

Singh, Rianka and Sarah Sharma. 2019. “Platform Uncommons.” Feminist Media Studies.

Singh, Rianka. 2018. “Platform Feminism: Protest and the Politics of Spatial Organization.” ADA: A Journal of Gender, New Media and Technology, 14.

Shade, Leslie Regan and Rianka Singh. 2016. “‘Honestly, We’re Not Spying on Kids’: School Surveillance of Young People’s Social Media.” Social Media + Society, October-December 2016.

Other Writing 

Singh, Rianka.  2022. “H.O.R.S.E” Deep Horse Almanac, edited by Hazel Meyer. 

Singh, Rianka. 2021. “Curating Care: A CJC Playlist.” Canadian Journal of Communications

Singh, Rianka. 2016. “Awkward Politics: Technologies of Pop Feminist Activism by Carrie Smith-Prei and Maria Stehle.” The Monitor by the Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives, July/August.

“Books Aren’t Dead: Low Power to the People: Pirates, Protest, and Politics in FM Radio Activism.” 2017. Interview by Rianka Singh with Christina Dunbar-Hester. Fembot Collective. August 2017. http://https://fembot.adanewmedia.org/blog/2017/08/05/books-arent-dead-low-power-people-pirates-protest-politics-fm-radio-activism/.