Celeste Oon

Pronouns: she/her

Email: oon@usc.edu
Advisor: Tara McPherson

Celeste Oon is a PhD student in Cinema and Media Studies at the University of Southern California. A self-proclaimed internet connoisseur, she specializes in technocultures and online communities, with particular interest in creators and influencers. With core methodologies rooted in ethnography, discourse analysis, and STS, her work bridges gaps between internet/platform studies, celebrity studies, and audience/fan studies. Within the context of digital networks, Celeste investigates information flows, and the ways in which users negotiate power/intimacy and interact with technological interfaces. She has previously presented at conferences for the Society for Cinema and Media Studies and the Association of Internet Researchers, and her work has been published or is forthcoming in Transformative Works and Cultures, The International Journal of Communication, and The Routledge Companion to Media Fandom. Alongside her scholarly work, Celeste freelances in industry spaces, running the gamut from marketing/PR to community management and trust and safety. In the non-profit sector, she interned for the ACLU in Artist and Influencer Engagement, where she mobilized celebrities for social change.