Hi there!

I'm Yukun.

I'm


Yukun Yang (陽 玉堃)

he / they
Subfields Epistemological Approaches Capacity

I am an online communication scholar broadly interested in online communities, digital culture, and race and technology, through both critical and computational approaches. Standing at the nexus of technology, technology use, and technoculture, I lead critical race/digital research investigating how emerging communication technologies reconfigure the parameters of our sense of self and thereby (re-)shape communication paradigms and online identity expressions. I also support computational social science projects as a methodologist and analyst specializing in text and social network analysis.

Currently, I am Ph.D. candidate in Interdisciplinary Design and Media at Northeastern University working with Prof. Brooke Foucault Welles. My work has been published in communication/media studies journals such as New Media & Society, Social Media + Society, and Information, Communication & Society and computational social science venues such as ICWSM and CSCW. Previously, I was a Data Scientist at the Center for Antiracist Research, Boston University after obtaining my master's degree in Information Science offered by the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

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My Recent Updates

New paper about how TikTok users play-wash racialized masculinity is out in New Media & Society

07/2026

My paper on "Tiktok Refugees" is out on Information, Communication & Society

01/2026

My paper about 23andme and race out in New Media & Society

05/2025

Worker Solidarity, Pay Transparency, and Labor Rights

Although oftentimes overlooked, the world of research, academics, and non-profit jobs is no stranger to labor abuse and exploitation. Under a staggering power imbalance, the system is rigged against knowledge workers at the bottom of the hierarchy and sustained by an enormous number of professional–managerial class (PMC) people who intentionally sideline the labor struggle. Nowadays, the situation went from bad to worse due to the culture of "achievement society" that enables "auto-exploitation" and the illusive bait of "meritocracy", which is often only hereditary.

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As a foreigner in this country, I have heard many horrifying stories from my peer international folks who are disproportionately exploited due to their legal status, nationality, and residency, along with other intersectional identities. It is my duty to protect people like us who are systematically gatekept from obtaining equal rights and at the same time targeted for power abuse for our vulnerability.

Building solidarity, e.g. unionization, is a time-tested way to counter exploitation. Transparency boosts trust and leads to solidarity. In this big wild world, this is the least I can do to fight with the leviathan of the system by promoting information transparency. I am glad to share my experiences or other bits of information I have learned along the way. Specifically, you are more than welcome to contact me to talk about pay, visa, and other related issues. If you have concerns about privacy, you can use any of the anonymous email services.

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