Melissa Brown

Assistant Professor

B.S. in Psychology, B.A. in German, The University of Georgia, 2008
M.A. in Sociology, The University of Maryland, 2015
Ph.D. in Sociology, The University of Maryland, 2019
Post-doctoral Scholar, Clayman Institute for Gender Research, Stanford University

Melissa C. Brown is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication. She researches digital media, artificial intelligence, and online social networking applications. At SCU, she teaches courses in Media and Technology Studies, Qualitative Research Methods, Dating in the Digital Age, and Race, Gender, and Digital Activism.

Dr. Brown collaborates with students across the College of Arts and Sciences and the School of Engineering on research exploring the sociological implications of digital platforms. This research group applies sociological theory and methods to examine how digital technologies affect social identity, groups, and structures. Their projects investigate how emerging technologies influence social stratification and the social psychological phenomena that emerge from or are transformed by human-computer interaction. Primary research topics include the anthropomorphization of AI, algorithmic visibility, digital activism, digital violence, online misinformation, and digital culture. Please contact Dr. Brown if you're a student interested in participating in this research.

While at SCU, Dr. Brown has received generous support through research and teaching grants and awards including the Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) Scholarship Award, the University Research and Creative Activities Grants, the $2K for Faculty-menotred Undergraduate Research Support, the Teaching and Technology Innovation Grant, and the Hackworth Research Grant. She has also received external grants for teaching through the American Sociological Association’s Carla B. Howery Teaching Enhancement Fund and for research through the American Public Health Association and Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

In addition to serving as a Public Voices Fellow on Technology in the Public Interest with the Op-Ed Project, supported by the MacArthur Foundation, she was also a member of the inaugural class for the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS)’s Summer Institute on Diversity Science at Stanford University. In 2024, she participated in an Africana Studies Summer Institute Advances Research on Women and Girls of Color at the University of Connecticut. In 2025, She was the Leadership in Education Honoree at the 9th annual Black History Month Celebration hosted by the State of California Assemblymember Ash Kalra.

Outside of her research and teaching, Dr. Brown is also interested in adopting digital platforms such as podcasts, blogs, and social media as pedagogical tools both within and beyond the academy. When she is not working on her blog Blackfeminisms.com, she enjoys talking walks with her dog, listening to audiobooks, and playing video games.

Pronouns: she/her(s)

Courses

Media and Technology Studies
Qualitative Research Methods
Dating in the Digital Age
Race, Gender, and Digital Activism

Publications

Brown, Melissa. 2025. "A Response to Many Violences: Reframing the Call to #SayHerName." In Black Lives Matter: A Reference Handbook, edited by Shaonta’ Allen, Simone Durham and Angela Jones. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Brown, Melissa. 2024. "Instagram vixens: the racialized sexual scripts of erotic labor online." Feminist Media Studies: 1–17.
Luna, Zakiya, Melissa C. Brown, Maria S. Johnson, and Whitney N. L. Pirtle. 2024. "On Joy and War: Black Feminism/Intersectionality." Annual Review of Sociology 50 (1): 61–83.
Ray, Rashawn, Melissa Brown, Ed Summers, Samantha Elizondo, and Connor Powelson. 10/25/21 2021. Bystander Intervention on Social Media: Examining Cyberbullying and Reactions to Systemic Racism. Governance Studies, The Brookings Institution (Washington, D.C.).
Brown, Melissa. 2021. "For a Black Feminist Digital Sociology." In Black Feminist Sociology: Perspectives and Praxis, edited by Zakiya Luna and Whitney N. Laster Pirtle, 240–250. London and New York: Routledge.
Brown, Melissa. 2021. "Virtual Sojourners: The Duality of Visibility and Erasure for Black Women and LGBTQ People in the Digital Age." In Networked Feminisms: Activist Assemblies and Digital Practices, edited by Shana MacDonald, Michelle MacArthur, Milena Radzikowska and Brianna I. Wiens, 49–65. Rowman & Littlefield.
Brown, Melissa. 2018. "Black Women as Agents of Social Change during the Obama Presidency." In How the Obama Presidency Changed the Political Landscape, edited by Larry J. Walker, F. Erik Brooks and Ramon B. Goings, 239–264.
Ray, Rashawn, Melissa Brown, and Wendy Laybourn. 2017. "The evolution of #BlackLivesMatter on Twitter: social movements, big data, and race." Ethnic and Racial Studies 40 (11): 1795–1796.
Ray, Rashawn, Melissa Brown, Neil Fraistat, and Edward Summers. 2017. "Ferguson and the death of Michael Brown on Twitter: #BlackLivesMatter, #TCOT, and the evolution of collective identities." Ethnic and Racial Studies 40 (11): 1797–1813.
Brown, Melissa, Rashawn Ray, Ed Summers, and Neil Fraistat. 2017. "#SayHerName: a case study of intersectional social media activism." Ethnic and Racial Studies 40 (11): 1831–1846.
Brown, Melissa. 2017. "The sociology of antiracism in Black and White." Sociology Compass 11 (2): 1–11.