PhD candidate, Media and Communication, University of Leeds
Jenessa Williams (she/her) is a PhD Candidate in the School of Media and Communication at the University of Leeds. Her research specialisms are in music, race, gender, internet cultures and social media activist movements such as #BlackLivesMatter and #MeToo.
She began her doctoral research in October 2019, exploring the issue of ‘problematic’ music fandom in the wake of the #MeToo movement and questioning how music fans attempt to reconcile with morally-transgressive art/artists. Within this study, Jenessa explicitly compares and contrasts online discussion within Hip-Hop and Indie/Emo communities, illustrating how race, gender and social convention intersect with perceptions of victim believability, social retribution/rehabilitation and cancel culture.
Alongside academia, Jenessa also works as a music and culture journalist, and has been published by the likes of the Guardian, NME, Readers Digest, Alternative Press, Rolling Stone UK, DIY, Gal-Dem and the BBC.
Electricity from farm waste: how biogas could help Malawians with no power
What the Supreme Court is doing right in considering Trump’s immunity case
US election: why it’s not the protesters’ votes that the Democrats should worry about
IceCube researchers detect a rare type of energetic neutrino sent from powerful astronomical objects