Kathryn Claire Higgins

Kathryn Claire Higgins is a Lecturer in Global Digital Politics at the Department of Media, Communications and Cultural Studies, Goldsmiths, University of London. Her work critically examines intersections of media culture, vulnerability politics, and state violence. Previously, she held a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Annenberg Center for Collaborative Communication, University of Pennsylvania. Higgins holds a PhD (2022) and MSc (2015) in Media and Communications from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a BA in International Studies from RMIT University (2013).

Her research focuses on criminalization, sexual violence representation, mediated victimhood, visual securitization, and gender/racial dynamics in 'post-truth' discourse. Key outputs include her co-authored book *Believability: Sexual Violence, Media, and the Politics of Doubt* (Polity, 2023) and articles in *Feminist Theory*, *Visual Communication*, and *Journalism*. Her writing bridges academic and public spheres, addressing media's role in shaping belief, fear, and justice narratives.

Publications highlight themes like visual criminalization, 'white male vigilante' tropes, and digital media's impact on feminist discourse. She engages with platforms like BBC Woman's Hour and NBN Critical Theory Podcast to discuss media's mediation of societal harms. Higgins' work emphasizes critical interdisciplinary approaches, combining media studies, feminist theory, and sociological frameworks to analyze power structures embedded in cultural narratives.