Rohan Grover
PhD Candidate @ USC Annenberg · Los Angeles, CA
Hi, I'm Rohan! I'm a doctoral candidate at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at USC.
I study the politics of technology policy. Specifically, my dissertation project examines the sociotechnical construction of user consent in the emerging privacy tech industry, which develops standards for data privacy and, increasingly, AI governance. It is an ethnographic project that draws on science and technology studies, human-computer interaction, critical data studies, critical policy studies, and feminist and queer analysis of consent to unpack the politics of data governance and technology regulation in action.
I also have secondary interests in political communication, journalism, and Indian technopolitics. For example, I have explored microtargeting practices on Facebook Ads by political campaigns, how state actors digitally mediate citizenship and political participation by promoting open source platforms and internet shutdowns, and digital news organizations' economic and technological responses to platform power. Many of these projects are directly inspired by my prior work experience as a product manager, data analyst, and digital strategist for digital media or advocacy organizations such as HuffPost, MoveOn, Planned Parenthood, and Upworthy.
My work has been published in New Media & Society; Political Communication; Telecommunications Policy; Information, Communication & Society; The Information Society; and the Journal of Information Policy, and I have published archival conference proceedings at the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI) and the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR). My research has been supported by funding from the National Science Foundation as well as academic associations across disciplines such as the International Communication Association (ICA), the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) and the American Political Science Association (APSA). My work has also been recognized with the James R. Cleary Prize for Student Media Law and Policy Research and with two Top Student Paper Awards at ICA.
I hold a Master of Arts in Media, Culture, and Communication from New York University and a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. I am also affiliated with the Center for Information, Technology, and Public Life (CITAP) and the Global Internet Governance Network (GigaNet).
Please feel free to get in touch!
May 2024: A new journal article, "Platforms as templates: Emerging datafication dynamics in digital news outlets’ datawalls" (co-authored with Jeeyun (Sophia) Baik), is scheduled to be published in The Information Society
May 30–31, 2024: Scheduled to present a paper on privacy engineering expertise at the Privacy Law Scholars Conference in Washington, DC
June 20–24, 2024: Scheduled to present two papers on privacy engineering expertise and metadata privacy and participate in a doctoral consortium at the International Communication Association (ICA) annual conference in Gold Coast, Australia
September 4–6, 2024: Scheduled to present a paper on applying disaffect to conceptualize datafication at the biannual Data Power Conference in Bangalore, Graz, and online
September 21–22, 2024: Scheduled to present a paper on the sociotechnical construction of user consent at the Research Conference on Communications, Information, and Internet Policy (TPRC) annual conference in Washington, DC
October 30–November 2, 2024: Scheduled to participate in the doctoral colloquium and present a paper on privacy engineering expertise at the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR) annual conference in Sheffield, UK
May: Published a paper, "Encoding privacy: Sociotechnical dynamics of data protection compliance work", in the peer-reviewed conference proceedings of CHI 2024: Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
May: Published a journal article, "Beyond digital protection(ism): Comparing data governance frameworks in Asia" (co-authored with Kyooeun Jang and Li Wen Su), in the Journal of Information Policy
April: Awarded a Law and Society Dissertation Grant ($16,605) funded by the National Science Foundation (via Arizona State University, SBE #2016661)
April: Awarded the first-place James R. Cleary Prize for Student Media Law & Policy Research by the UNC Center for Media Law & Policy
January: Recognized as a "Rock Star Reviewer" by ICA's Communication Law & Policy Division
December: Defended my qualifying exams and prospectus to my committee (Mike Ananny, Wendy Hui Kyong Chun, Christina Dunbar-Hester, Hernan Galperin, Jennifer Petersen)
November: Awarded a Special Recognition for Outstanding Review by ACM CHI
November: Organized two panels (with Pratik Nyaupane) on emerging dynamics of digital citizenship at the Society for the Social Studies of Science (4S) annual conference in Honolulu
August: Began working as a research assistant with the newly founded research center, AI for Media & Storytelling (AIMS), an initiative of the USC Center for Generative AI & Society led by Mike Ananny and Holly Willis
June: Published a journal article, "Contingent connectivity: Internet shutdowns and the infrastructural precarity of digital citizenship", in New Media & Society
May: Awarded the Top Student Paper Award from ICA's Communication Law & Policy Division!
May: Awarded the Top Student Paper Award from ICA's Philosophy, Theory, and Critique Division!
April: Awarded 2 research grants from USC Annenberg and from the Center on Science, Technology, and Public Life
April: Published a journal article, "Destabilizing race: Social movements as sites of political imagination" (co-authored with Rachel Kuo), in Political Communication
January: Delivered a research presentation, "The trouble with transparency(ies) in data protection compliance work", at the USC Center on Science, Technology and Public Life's Graduate Student Research Symposium
January: Participated in a hosted discussion of my research on transparency in data governance at the Media Law & Policy Scholars Conference (MLPSC)
October: Delivered a research presentation, "From paywalls to datawalls? Platformization and datafication in digital news", at the USC Annenberg Research Seminar
September: Published a journal article, "The geopolitics of digital rights activism: Evaluating civil society's role in the promises of multistakeholder internet governance", in Telecommunications Policy
August: Began working as an assistant editor with the International Journal of Communication, led by Mike Ananny and Holly Willis
July: Participated in a hosted discussion of my research on developers' experiences with data protection regulations at the UC Berkeley School of Information
July: Published a book review of The Promise of Access by Daniel Greene in Information, Communication & Society
May: Awarded 3 research grants from USC Annenberg, from the Center on Science, Technology, and Public Life, and (with Jeeyun (Sophia) Baik) from the AEJMC Newspaper and Online News Division
April: Participated in a workshop on Triangulating Race, Capital, and Technology at CHI 2022 with a travel grant from SIGCHI
January: Awarded a research grant from the AEJMC Law & Policy Division
October: Published a conference paper, "Internet governance for whom? Civil society, representation, and digital rights", in AoIR Selected Papers of Internet Research
August: Began the PhD program at USC Annenberg
August: Published a report, "Building healthy membership communities" (co-authored with Jennifer Kho), with the Membership Puzzle Project
July: Awarded a research grant from the APSA Political Organizations and Parties Section
May: Graduated with a Master of Arts in Media, Culture, and Communication from NYU
May: Awarded the Distinguished Thesis Award from the NYU Department of Media, Culture, and Communication!
May: Awarded a research grant from the Asian/Pacific/American Institute
March: Awarded a research grant (with Jennifer Kho) from the Membership Puzzle Project
February: Left my job as Senior Product Manager at HuffPost
August: Began the MA program at the NYU Department of Media, Culture, and Communication
May: Awarded a $20,000 merit scholarship, the Rosenberg Award, from NYU