Introduction
Dr Crystal Abidin is a digital anthropologist and ethnographer of vernacular internet cultures. She researches influencer cultures, online visibility, and social media pop cultures especially in the Asia Pacific region, and has published over 60 articles and chapters on various aspects of internet celebrity and vernacular internet cultures. Her books include Internet Celebrity: Understanding Fame Online (2018), Microcelebrity Around the Globe: Approaches to Cultures of Internet Fame (co-editor Brown, 2018), Instagram: Visual Social Media Cultures (co-authors Leaver & Highfield, 2020), Mediated Interfaces: The Body on Social Media (co-editors Warfield & Cambre, 2020), and tumblr: Curation, Creativity and Community (co-authors Tiidenberg & Hendry, forthcoming).
Crystal is Associate Professor, Principal Research Fellow, & ARC DECRA Fellow in Internet Studies, Programme Lead of Social Media Pop Cultures at the Centre for Culture and Technology (CCAT) at Curtin University. She is also Affiliate Researcher with the Media Management and Transformation Centre at Jönköping University. She was listed on Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia and Pacific Standard 30 Top Thinkers Under 30, and recently received the International Communication Association Popular Communication Early Career Scholar Prize and ABC TOP 5 Humanities Fellowship. Reach her at wishcrys.com.
Publications
2020
- Leaver, T., T. Highfield, and C. Abidin.. "Instagram Visual Social Media Cultures." Cambridge: Polity Press. Inpress.
- Abidin, C., D. Brockington, M. K. Goodman, M. Mostafanezhad, and L. A. Richey. 2020. "The Tropes of Celebrity Environmentalism." Annual Review of Environment and Resources
- Abidin, C. 2020. "Somewhere Between Here and There: Negotiating Researcher Visibility in a Digital Ethnography of the Influencer Industry." Journal of Digital Social Research
- Abidin, C., and G. de Seta. 2020. "Private messages from the field: Confessions on digital ethnography and its discomforts." Journal of Digital Social Research
- Warfield, K., C. Abidin, and C. Cambre. 2020. "Mediated Interfaces The Body on Social Media.": Bloomsbury Publishing USA.
- Abidin, C., K. Hansen, M. Hogsnes, G. Newlands, M. L. Nielsen, L. Y. Nielsen, and T. Sihvonen. 2020. "A Review of Formal and Informal Regulations in the Nordic Influencer Industry." Nordic Journal of Media Studies 2 (1): 71-83.
- Abidin, C. 2020. "Meme factory cultures and content pivoting in Singapore and Malaysia during COVID-19." The Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) Misinformation Review 1
- Abidin, C., and J. Zeng. 2020. "Feeling Asian Together: Coping with #COVIDRacism on Subtle Asian Traits." Social Media + Society 6 (3): 1-5.
- Moon, J., and C. Abidin. 2020. "Online Ajumma: Self-presentations of contemporary elderly women via digital media in Korea." In Mediated Interfaces: The Body on Social Media
2019
- Abidin, C. 2019. "Yes Homo: Gay influencers, homonormativity, and queerbaiting on YouTube." Continuum 33 (5): 614-629.
- Abidin, C. 2019. "Navigating interdisciplinarity as a precarious early career researcher." Cultural Studies Review 25 (2): 78-83.
- Abidin, C. 2019. "Minahs and minority celebrity: parody youtube influencers and minority politics in Singapore." Celebrity Studies
- Liew, K. K., and C. Abidin. 2019. "‘Si Geena’ (Brat): Un-social digital juveniles’ episodic resistance in Singapore." Asiascape: Digital Asia
- Abidin, C. 2019. "Tacit Labours of Digital Social Research as an Early Career Researcher." Journal of Digital Social Research
- Abidin, C. 2019. "Hanging out at home as a lifestyle: YouTube home tour vlogs in East Asia." In The Routledge Companion to Media and Class
- Abidin, C. 2019. "Victim, Rival, Bully: Influencers’ narrative cultures around cyber-bullying." In Narratives in Research and Interventions on Cyberbullying among Young People
2018
- Abidin, C., and R. Cover. 2018. "Gay, famous and working hard on YouTube: Influencers, queer microcelebrity publics and discursive activism." In Youth, Sexuality and Sexual Citizenship, 217-231
- Abidin, C., and J. Gn. 2018. "Between art and application: Special issues on emoji epistemology." First Monday 23 (9): 0-0.
- Abidin, C. 2018. "The Semiotics of Emoji: The Rise of Visual Language in the Age of the Internet." DISCOURSE & COMMUNICATION 12 (4): 450-453.
- Abidin, C. 2018. "Young people and digital grief etiquette." In A Networked Self and Birth, Life, Death, 160-174
- Ask, K., and C. Abidin. 2018. "My life is a mess: self-deprecating relatability and collective identities in the memification of student issues." Information Communication and Society 21 (6): 834-850.
- Abidin, C., and M. L. Brown. 2018. "Microcelebrity Around the Globe Approaches to Cultures of Internet Fame.": Emerald Group Publishing.
- Abidin, C. 2018. "Internet Celebrity Understanding Fame Online.": Emerald Group Publishing.
- Abidin, C. 2018. "Milner, Ryan M. The World Made Meme: Public Conversations and Participatory Media." Asiascape: Digital Asia
- Limkangvanmongkol, V., and C. Abidin. 2018. "Net idols and beauty bloggers’ negotiations of race, commerce, and cultural customs: Emergent microcelebrity genres in Thailand." In Microcelebrity Around the Globe: Approaches to cultures of internet fame
- Abidin, C. 2018. "Origin stories: An ethnographic account of researching microcelebrity." In Microcelebrity Around the Globe: Approaches to cultures of internet fame
- Şimşek, B., C. Abidin, and M. L. Brown. 2018. "Musical.ly and microcelebrity among girls." In Microcelebrity Around the Globe: Approaches to cultures of internet fame
- Abidin, C., and M. L. Brown. 2018. "Introduction." In Microcelebrity Around the Globe: Approaches to cultures of internet fame
2017
- Abidin, C. 2017. "#Familygoals: Family influencers, calibrated amateurism, and justifying young digital labor." Social Media and Society 3 (2)
- Abidin, C., and J. Gwynne. 2017. "Entrepreneurial Selves, Feminine Corporeality and Lifestyle Blogging in Singapore." Asian Journal of Social Science 45 (4-5): 385-408.
- Abidin, C. 2017. "Vote for my selfie: Politician selfies as charismatic engagement." In Selfie Citizenship Kuntsman, A., 75-87 Switzerland: Springer.
2016
- Abidin, C. 2016. "Visibility labour: Engaging with Influencers' fashion brands and #OOTD advertorial campaigns on Instagram." Media International Australia 161 (1): 86-100.
- Abidin, C. 2016. "Seeing ourselves through technology: How we use selfies, blogs and wearable devices to see and shape ourselves." MOBILE MEDIA & COMMUNICATION 4 (2): 290-292.
- Warfield, K., C. Cambre, and C. Abidin. 2016. "Introduction to the Social Media + Society Special Issue on Selfies: Me-diated Inter-faces." Social Media and Society 2 (2)
- Abidin, C. 2016. "“Aren’t These Just Young, Rich Women Doing Vain Things Online?”: Influencer Selfies as Subversive Frivolity." Social Media and Society 2 (2)
- Abidin, C. 2016. "‘Just Asian’? inscribing east Asian ‘mixed race’ in Australia." In Mixed Race Identities in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands, 84-99
- Abidin, C. 2016. "Happy #monthsary babe!: Vernacular readings and practices of monthsaries among young couplings on social media." Networking Knowledge
- Abidin, C. 2016. "Agentic cute (^.^): Pastiching East Asian cute in Influencer commerce." East Asian Journal of Popular Culture
- Abidin, C. 2016. "Sex Bait: Sex talk on commercial blogs as informal sexuality education." In Palgrave Handbook of Sexuality Education
- Abidin, C. 2016. "Influencer Extravaganza: A decade of commercial ‘lifestyle’ microcelebrities in Singapore." In Routledge Companion to Digital Ethnography
- Abidin, C. 2016. "Influencers Tell All? Unravelling Authenticity and Credibility in a Brand Scandal." In Blurring the Lines: Market-driven and Democracy-driven Freedom of Expression
2015
- Abidin, C. 2015. "Beyond the Singapore Girl: Discourses of Gender and Nation in Singapore." ASIAN JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCE 43 (5): 649-651.
- Abidin, C. 2015. "Ethnography and virtual worlds: a handbook of method." ANTHROPOLOGICAL FORUM 25 (3): 306-308.
- Abidin, C. 2015. "Communicative ❤ Intimacies: Influencers and Perceived Interconnectedness." Ada: A Journal of Gender, New Media, & Technology
- Abidin, C. 2015. "Micro-microcelebrity: Branding babies on the Internet." M/C Journal
2014
- Abidin, C. 2014. "‘I also Melayu ok’ – Malay-Chinese women negotiating the ambivalence of biraciality for agentic autonomy." M/C Journal
- Abidin, C. 2014. "#In$tagLam: Instagram as a repository of taste, a brimming marketplace, a war of eyeballs." In Mobile Media Making in the Age of Smartphones
2013
- Abidin, C. 2013. "Cyber-BFFs: Assessing women’s ‘perceived interconnectedness’ in Singapore’s commercial lifestyle blog industry." Global Media Journal Australian Edition
- Abidin, C. 2013. "‘Cya IRL’: Researching digital communities online and offline." Limina: a journal of historical and cultural studies
- Abidin, C. 2013. "Special Edition (2013): ‘Humanising Collaboration’." Limina: a journal of historical and cultural studies
- Abidin, C. 2013. "Book Review: Romit Dasgupta, Re-reading the Salaryman in Japan: Crafting Masculinities." Limina: a journal of historical and cultural studies
- Abidin, C. 2013. "Exclusivity: Research in Practice – Interview with Professor Gilbert Herdt." Limina: a journal of historical and cultural studies
2012
- Abidin, C., and E. C. Thompson. 2012. "Buymylife.com: Cyber-femininities and commercial intimacy in blogshops." Women's Studies International Forum 35 (6): 467-477.
- Abidin, C. 2012. "History in Practice Interview – Prof. Susan Broomhall." Limina: a journal of historical and cultural studies