Veronica Barassi
Veronica Barassi
Director
Blumenbergplatz 9
9000 St. Gallen
Media Cultures, Democracy and Social Change
Tech-Platforms, Ethics and Algorithmic Cultures
Responsible AI, Human Rights and Data Privacy
Digital Anthropology and Media Ethnography
AI Errors and Human Rights
Children's Data Privacy
Tech Platforms and Social Responsibility
Youth, Digital Practices and Intergenerational Communication
Intercultural Communication and Social Change
Techno-Abuse and Violence
Social Media and Democracy
- Ph.D Social Anthropology (with Media Supervision, MRes distinction 2006), Goldsmiths, University of London, AHRC Funded. Submitted November 2009, Passed without corrections 100/100, Jan 2010
- B.A. Anthropology and Communications, Goldsmiths University of London (First Honors), 2001- 2004
Prof. Dr. Barassi is a Full Professor in Media and Communication Studies at the University of St. Gallen, where she also serves as the Chair of Media and Culture at the Institute of Media and Communications Management. Additionally, she is the Academic Director of the Contextual Studies Programme and Vice-Dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences (SHSS-HSG). Before joining the University of St. Gallen in 2020, she was an Associate Professor in the Department of Media, Communications, and Cultural Studies at Goldsmiths, University of London. She has also held various Visiting Professor positions at the University of Münster (2018-present), UCLA (2019), the Institute for Advanced Studies at Loughborough University (2021), and the University of Turin (2024).
Prof. Barassi has extensive experience in socially engaged research and consults for companies and non-profit organizations worldwide. In 2018, her research was used by the UK's Information Commissioner’s Office as evidence for the development of the Age Appropriate Design Code. In 2019, she was invited by the Irish Government to discuss AI ethics at their Digital Summit. Her TED Talk, What Tech Companies Know About Your Children, has garnered over 2 million views, and her work has frequently been featured in international media outlets.
Prof Dr. Barassi is the Academic Director of the Contextual Studies Programme at HSG and of the MA Certificate Digital Communication and Journlism (DJK). She teaches undergraduate and postgraduate courses at the intersection of media and communication studies (e.g. state/media/market relations; media concentration and ownership; global media and globalization theories); cultural studies (e.g. theories of representation; ideology; gender, race, postcolonial and critical theory) and media sociology and anthropology (e.g. classical social theory, myth, symbolism and rituals). Some of her courses include:
- Social Sciences Colloquium (PhD)
- Social Media in Context: Economics, Politics and Culture (MA)
- Big Data and Artificial Intelligence in the Algorithmic Society (MA)
- Organizations and Changing Media Cultures (MA)
- Global Media, Digital Networks and Communication Power (BA)
- Understanding Data Cultures: From Social Media to Artificial Intelligence (BA)
- Media Workshop (MA/BA)
See the different research projects
Editorial Board Member of the Annals of the Fondazione Einaudi
Prof. Barassi's work on the political economy of tech-platforms, algorithmic cultures and everyday family life has received both academic and public impact. Her project "Child | Data | Citizen: Data Traces, Family Life and the Digital Profiling of Children" (2016-2019) was one of the first projects in the field to engage with key questions about the human rights implications of children's data traces. The project resulted in different publications, including two book (MIT Press, 2020; LUISS PRESS, 2021), international media coverage and many diffrent impact based research collaborations.
Prof. Barassi's work on the human rights implications on of AI errors in algorithmic profiling (The Human Error Project: AI, Human Rights and the Conflict over Algorithmic Profiling 2020 - 2023) has been key to reflecting on new ideas about AI failures, glitches and errors, and societal responses to this pressing problem. The project resulted in different publications (including an article on the Harvard Data Science Review, 2024) and research reports, which gathered national and international media attention as well as academic impact. The project was also key to the career development of two PhD students and 2 Postdoctoral Fellows. It also resulted in connecting and engaging different researchers and publics through an SNSF Agora programme titled "Machines that Fail Us", and through different publicly and industry led engagements such as a talk at The Biennale di Tecnologia (Turin, 2022).
Prof. Barassi is also known for her expertise in the study of digital cultures, digital ethnography, and the anthropology of AI. She acted as Vice-Chair of the Digital Culture Section of the European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA). She also co-ordinated the online seminars of the EASA Media Anthropology Network from 2013 to 2020, with the aim to bring scholars together and educate and inspire younger generations of scholars. Her achievements in this area include publications, and talks that reflect on the importance of the ethnographic method in the study of digital cultures, and how poeple negotiate with the political economy, and business models of tech-platforms. For example her work on the relationship between technologies and new temporal regimes, led her not only to key publications, but also to high impact public contributions such as her talk on “Conflicting Temporalities” in the House of Commons in the UK Parliament in London or the inclusion into Jenny Odell’s New York Times Bestseller "How To Do Nothing: Resisting The Attention Economy" (2019).