Rachel Plotnick

Rachel Plotnick serves as an Associate Professor at The Media School of Indiana University, where she teaches courses on digital media and society, social media cultures, wearables, and the cultural history of media technologies. Her academic profile centers on critical historical analysis of technology's role in everyday life through embodied and material perspectives.

Her research program investigates Human-Machine Relationships, Interfaces, Touch/Haptics, Embodiment, Media and Materiality, History of Technology, Wearables, and Artificial Intelligence. She examines how technologies become embedded in lived experiences, as demonstrated in her two books: Power Button: A History of Pleasure, Panic and the Politics of Pushing (MIT Press, 2018) analyzing cultural dimensions of button-pushing, and the forthcoming License to Spill: Where Dry Devices Meet Liquid Lives (MIT Press, 2025) exploring device resilience against liquid accidents like spills and immersion.

Her scholarly recognition includes:

• IU Trustees Teaching Award
• Eastman Residency Award

Professor Plotnick actively contributes to collaborative research through IU's Arts & Humanities AI + Digital Futures initiative, where she investigates passive wrist wearables—from hospital bracelets to theme park wristbands—examining 'braceleting' as a sociotechnical phenomenon. She co-convenes The Bloomington Symposia: Intelligence and has secured internal Media School funding for external research pursuits. Her work has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The Verge, BBC, and Science Friday, reflecting broad societal relevance.