Jessica Kate Crowell

Jessica Kate Crowell is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Digital Media & Journalism at SUNY New Paltz. She holds a PhD in Media Studies/Communication from the School of Communication, Information & Media at Rutgers.  Jessica is currently a co-coordinator for the Sustainability Faculty Learning Community at SUNY New Paltz. She is a former Executive Secretary and Council Member for the New York State Communication Association.

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Jessica is an ethnographer working at the intersection of the gig economy, digital inequality, and information access in local communities. Her work has appeared in "Transforming Everything? Evaluating Broadband's Impact Across Policy Areas"; Communication, Culture & Critique; Digital Journalism; and, The Journal of Media Literacy Education. She has taught courses at the intersection of media studies and critical theory, such as Gender, Race, Class and the Media; Media and Popular Culture; Media, Culture and Technology; and, Media and Society. In 2019, Jessica received a grant to develop a new course which explores the intersection of technology and class: Communication Work in the Gig Economy. She was most recently awarded a $10,000 PRODiG grant to study the impact of sustainability education on student learning at SUNY New Paltz. 

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Jessica is a firm believer in engaged scholarship. As such, she has authored government policy papers and reports on broadband access and economic opportunity in low-income communities for the U.S. federal Broadband Technology Opportunities Program, the New Jersey State Board of Public Utilities, and the New Jersey Office of Information Technology. She has collaborated on qualitative projects studying information access for the Democracy Fund, the Cleveland Foundation, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, and Internews. Jessica also previously served as an Interdisciplinary Fellow at the Eagleton Institute of Politics and as a grant assistant in the Media and Democracy Program at the Social Science Research Council.
 

Prior to graduate study, Jessica worked in professional media as a Media Strategist at OMD- New York on the PepsiCo and Hershey's accounts. 

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