Join us for an event showcasing three summer research presentations by PhD students at USC. Below are details on each of the speakers and their work: 

• Fernanda Cruz: “Si mañana me toca a mi, quiero ser la última: The fiction/factual phantasmagoria of feminicide in Mexico”. Drawing from Latin American scholars such as Verónica Gago (2012), Marcela Lagarde (2006), Laura Segato (2002, 2006, 2010), Rosa-Linda Fregoso and Cynthia Bejarano (2010), this project strives to further contribute to the theorization of the phenomenon of Feminicide and Feminicidal violence in Mexico. This project proposes to look closer at the production and role that forensic evidence and scientific validation play in authorizing or deauthorizing narratives of feminicide.
• Soyun Ahn: “You can’t use Google Maps in South Korea, use Naver instead: A case study of digital sovereignty in action”. This study examines the dysfunction of Google Maps in South Korea and the alternative mapping infrastructures that serve the territory as an empirical case of digital sovereignty manifested by a democratic nation-state.
• Jessica Ramos: “Target audience reached: TikTok and the discourse surrounding algorithms”: This paper investigates how TikTok, a globally popular short-video sharing app, shapes and is shaped by its users. It challenges the traditional media studies theories that cast media consumers as passive and lacking agency.

From left to right: Fernanda Cruz, Soyun Ahn, and Jessica Ramos