Jennifer Earl
Professor of Sociology, University of Arizona
About Me
Jennifer Earl is a Professor of Sociology and (by courtesy) Government and Public Policy at the University of Arizona. She is Director Emeritus of the Center for Information Technology and Society and Director Emeritus of the Technology and Society PhD Emphasis, both at University of California, Santa Barbara. Her research focuses on social movements, information technologies, and the sociology of law, with research emphases on Internet activism, social movement repression, youth activism, and legal change. She is the recipient of a National Science Foundation CAREER Award for research from 2006-2011 on Web activism. She was also a member of the MacArthur Research Network on Youth and Participatory Politics. She has published widely, including an MIT Press book, co-authored with Katrina Kimport, entitled Digitally Enabled Social Change, which examines how the use of Internet affordances are reshaping the basic dynamics of protest online and was awarded an Honorable Mention for the Communication and Information Technologies Section of the American Sociological Association’s Book Award in 2013. She was inducted in 2016 to the Sociological Research Association, an honorary association for sociological researchers. She is also the winner of a career achievement award from the Communication, Information Technologies, and Media Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association, the recipient of a university-award for excellence in undergraduate research mentoring in 2010-2011, and the recipient of a university-wide award for the most outstanding assistant professor on her campus in 2005-2006.
youth activism; repression; digital and social media
For more information, see Faculty Bio
Selected Publications
Maher, Thomas V., and Jennifer Earl. Forthcoming. “Living Down to Expectations: Age Inequality and Youth Activism.” Forthcoming in Research in Political Sociology.
Maher, Thomas V., Morgan Johnstonbaugh and Jennifer Earl. 2020. “One Size Doesn’t Fit All: Connecting Views of Activism with Youth Activist Identification.” Mobilization 25 (1): 27–44. https://doi.org/10.17813/1086-671X-25-1-27
Maher, Thomas V. and Jennifer Earl. 2019. “Barrier or Booster? Digital Media, Social Networks, and Youth Micromobilization.” Sociological Perspectives 62(6): 865–883. https://doi.org/10.1177/0731121419867697
Earl, Jennifer. 2018. “Youth Protest’s New Tools and Old Concerns.” Contexts 17(2): 15-17. https://contexts.org/articles/resist-or-what/
Elliott, Thomas and Jennifer Earl. 2018. “Organizing the Next Generation: Youth Engagement with Activism Inside and Outside of Organizations.” Social Media + Society Jan-Mar: 1-14. DOI: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2056305117750722
Maher, Thomas V., and Jennifer Earl. 2017. “Pathways to Contemporary Youth Protest: The Continuing Relevance of Family, Friends, and School for Youth Micromobilization.” Emerald Studies in Media and Communication 14: 55-87.
Elliott, Thomas, Jennifer Earl, and Thomas V. Maher. 2017. “Recruiting Inclusiveness: Intersectionality, Social Movements, and Youth Online.” Research in Social Movements, Conflicts and Change 41: 279-311 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/S0163-786X20170000041019
Earl, Jennifer, Thomas V. Maher, and Thomas Elliott. 2017. “Youth, Activism, and Social Movements.” Sociology Compass 11(4): http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/soc4.12465.
Thomas Elliott and Jennifer Earl. 2019. “Kids These Days: Supply and Demand for Youth Online Political Engagement.” Pp. 69-100 in Digital Media and Democratic Futures, edited by Michael X. Delli Carpini. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.