Christopher J. Persaud

Christopher J. Persaud is a PhD candidate at USC Annenberg, where he is also pursuing graduate certificates in science and technology studies and visual studies. His work tends to focus on identity, intimacy, communication technologies, and digital culture. His dissertation research explores how queer sexual content creators and artists engage in media and cultural production shaped by race, gender, and sexuality, and make sense of and respond to content moderation, algorithmic filtering, and other sociotechnical systems that mediate their participation in digital social life. Beyond USC, Persaud is the Student & Early Career Representative (2022-2024) for the LGBTQ Studies Interest Group within the International Communication Association and a graduate student affiliate with the Center for Critical Race and Digital Studies at NYU.

Persaud has presented at the annual meetings of the Association of Internet Researchers, International Communication Association, American Sociological Association, and Queerness and Games Conference, among others. His work has been published in the International Journal of Communication, Social Media + Society, New Media & Society, and First Monday, among other venues. He is co-editor of Real Life in Real Time: Live Streaming Culture (2023, MIT Press).

Prior to graduate school, Persaud worked as a research assistant for the Social Media Collective at Microsoft Research New England, held undergraduate summer research fellowships at Harvard University in the sociology and history of science departments, and worked on the LGBTQ Video Game Archive project. He received his BA in sociology and French with a minor in LGBT Studies from Temple University.