Jingyi Gu

Jingyi Gu is an Assistant Professor in the Communication Program at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s School of Communication and Information. Her research examines digital platforms' impact on social relationships, intimacy, and governance in global contexts, with a focus on China. She employs ethnography, discourse analysis, and platform walkthroughs to study algorithmic mediation, labor dynamics, and technological scalability.

Dr. Gu holds a Ph.D. in Communications and Media (with a minor in Gender and Women’s Studies) from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania’s Center on Digital Culture and Society. Her work investigates how digital platforms shape narratives around gender, sexuality, class, and migration, while theorizing 'scalable intimacy' as a framework for understanding contradictions in mediated sociality.

Her current book project explores live streaming’s role in configuring scalable yet paradoxically personal connections, analyzing platform design, economic mechanisms, and regulatory frameworks. She contributes to interdisciplinary discussions on digital Asia and critical technology studies.