On research leave 2022-23, as a member of the Institute for Advanced Study.

Christina Dunbar-Hester conducts interpretive research into the politics of technology. She is the author of two award-winning ethnographies of activism in technical communities: Hacking Diversity: The Politics of Inclusion in Open Technology Cultures (Princeton U. Press, 2020); and Low Power to the People: Pirates, Protest, and Politics in FM Radio Activism (MIT Press, 2014).  

Dunbar-Hester has most recently authored Oil Beach: How Toxic Infrastructure Threatens Life in the Ports of Los Angeles and Beyond, a study of multispecies life and death in the Ports of Los Angeles/Long Beach, focusing on the entanglement of global shipping, wildlife conservation, and petroleum infrastructure (University of Chicago Press, 2023). 

She is a faculty affiliate with the Center on Science, Technology and Public Life, which hosts the PhD certificate in Science and Technology Studies at USC as well as her research group on urban ecosystems with researchers across southern California.  

Dunbar-Hester holds a PhD in science and technology studies from Cornell University. Prior to joining USC Annenberg, she taught in journalism and media studies at Rutgers University, where she was also affiliated faculty in women’s and gender studies. Her research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Institute for Advanced Study, the Berggruen Institute, the Andrew J. Mellon Humanities Project, the Virtual Knowledge Studio for the Humanities and Social Sciences, and the Institute for Advanced Studies on Science, Technology and Society.

Many of her publications can be found here.

A write-up of her doctoral course on Science and Technology Studies for Communication and Media Studies can be viewed online at The Atlantic’s Technology Channel. An updated version of this course is offered regularly. She also teaches a doctoral course on ethnographic research.