Jane Yeahin Pyo

Hi! I am Jane Yeahin Pyo (she/her). I am currently a Postdoctoral Research at the Communication Department at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. I am also a Postdoctoral Fellow of the Global Technology for Social Justice Lab (GloTech Lab@UMass).  

I received my PhD from the Institute of Communications Research, at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

My interdisciplinary research brings together media studies, critical technology studies, and global studies. I bring critical and global perspectives to how digital media technology impacts and shapes our democratic and social life. Specifically, I look at digital politics, global technology, and the Asian American race. 

My book project, Digital parasites: New contentious politics in the age of digital media, examines a new mode of politics enabled by digital media technology. I explore the emergence of a new political repertoire within South Korean left-wing activism that utilizes online harassment as a tactic to challenge the longstanding power of the conservative press in the gatekeeping of civic discourses since the authoritarian dictatorship. The book reveals divergent ways that people imagine and practice democracy in digital, global contexts. 

I also look at digital technologies' impact on politics within global and transnational flows of disinformation. Since Fall 2023, I am working on the “Co-Insights: Fostering community collaboration to combat misinformation” NSF-funded project, and lead a multi-method, multidisciplinary, and community-engaging research project on racialized disinformation targeting Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities. Within this project, I explore how global digital platforms (e.g., KakaoTalk, WeChat) create an intimate yet intimidating environment for diasporic Asians in their encounter with misinformation.

I received my MA in Communication from Yonsei University (2017) and BA in Media Studies and English Literature and Language from Korea University (2015). In my free time, I love working out--weightlifting, swimming, running..sometimes all in one day!