Julia Ticona

Julia Ticona is an Assistant Professor at the Annenberg School for Communication and holds a secondary appointment in Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research examines how digital communication technologies shape precarious work, focusing on mobile phones, algorithmic platforms, and data-driven management systems affecting low-wage workers. She explores identity construction, inequality, and labor dynamics in the gig economy, including a book under contract with Oxford University Press titled *The Digital Hustle: Precarity Beyond Platforms*.

Dr. Ticona earned her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Virginia (2016), an M.A. from the same institution (2011), and a B.A. from Wellesley College (2009). She has held postdoctoral roles at Data & Society Research Institute and is currently a Faculty Affiliate there and an Associate Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture. Her work appears in journals like *New Media & Society* and outlets such as *Wired* and *Slate*.

Her research interests include digital labor platforms, algorithmic management, carework regulation, and the intersection of technology with inequality. She has contributed to legal advocacy, including an amicus brief for the U.S. Supreme Court case *Carpenter v. U.S.*. Her courses address digital inequalities, labor in the digital economy, and qualitative research methods.

Her publications analyze topics like visibility regimes in domestic work platforms, contested governance on carework platforms, and strategies for coping with insecure digital labor. Her recent work critiques data colonialism and explores how technological systems exacerbate socioeconomic divides.

Leveraging qualitative methods, Ticona’s scholarship bridges sociological theory with empirical studies of digital labor. She collaborates across disciplines to address systemic inequities perpetuated by technology, emphasizing worker agency and institutional accountability in platform economies.