Select Publications (Google Scholar link)
Brewster, K. (2022) “Imagining a Better Internet.” Issues in Science & Technology, Fall 2022. Link.
Ryan Rose Aceae, Kathryn Brewster, Amanda L. L. Cullen, William Dunkel, Ian R. Larson, and Rainforest Scully-Blaker. (2022) Game Studies, Futurity, and Necessity (or The Game Studies Regarded as Still to Come). Critical Studies in Media Communication. Link.
Kathryn Brewster & Bonnie Ruberg (2020) SURVIVORS: Archiving the history of bulletin board systems and the AIDS crisis. First Monday, 25(10). Link.
Bonnie Ruberg, Amanda L. L. Cullen & Kathryn Brewster (2019) Nothing but a “titty streamer”: legitimacy, labor, and the debate over women’s breasts in video game live streaming, Critical Studies in Media Communication, 36:5, 466-481, DOI: 10.1080/15295036.2019.1658886
Dissertation work (PhD awarded summer of 2023)
“Surviving Online: Digitally-mediated communities and the AIDS epidemic (1987-1990)”
Committee: Aaron Trammell (Chair), Bo Ruberg, Paul Dourish, Lucas HIlderbrand.
Keywords: web archivy, bulletin board systems (BBS), information infrastructures, internet histories, queer theory
Research context
This dissertation project broadly focused on the development of community information networks and historical Internet use by LGBTQ+ people, gender minorities, and the chronically ill. The cornerstone of that project was the paper printout of a bulletin board system (BBS) operated by and for people with AIDS from 1987-1990. These materials, which currently only exist on paper, raise questions about the role of marginalised people in Internet histories, how their history is archived or remembered, and the interplay between the materiality and mechanics of memory work in queer spaces online. Delving into corners of Usenet and the fragmented records of BBS history, this project demonstrated not only how the personal computer shaped HIV/AIDS activism, but how their archival records are at risk of fading away without a concerted effort to preserve and use them.
Recent Conference Presentations and Talks
Kathryn Brewster and Elizabeth Petrick (American Studies Association, October 2023) “Even when my eyes are gone for good: disability and visibility in computer mediated communication.” [Panel: Solidarity Online. Chair: Marika Cifor.]
Kathryn Brewster (National Communications Association, November 2022) “Anticipatory mourning in the internet of the anthropocene: remembering the online self in times of crisis” [Panel: Digital PLACE in Web3. Chair: Robert Gehl]
Kathryn Brewster (Society for the History of Technology, November 2022) “SURVIVORS: Material AIDS Histories in Bulletin Board Systems and Personal Computing (1987-1990)” [Panel: New Histories of American Personal Computing. Chair: Laine Nooney.]
Kathryn Brewster (Society for Cinema and Media Studies, March 2022) “Storytelling Campfirefest”: Bulletin Board Systems Amidst the AIDS Epidemic.” [Panel: New Computer Histories. Chair: Laine Nooney.]
Kathryn Brewster (American Studies Association, October 2021) “Archiving the History of Bulletin Board Systems and the AIDS Crisis.” [Panel: Reclaiming HIV/AIDS in Digital Media Studies. Chair: Cait McKinney and Marika Cifor.]
Kathryn Brewster (Association of Internet Researchers, October 2021) “Queer perspectives on digital archives of bulletin board systems.” [Doctoral Colloquium. PI: T.L. Cowan.]
Kathryn Brewster (Queerness and Games Conference, December 2020) “The Sims and LGBTQ+ Design Practices.” [Invited Talk.]
Kathryn Brewster (Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts, November 2019) “Shadows, bloodlines, heritage: Queer futurity in the age of evolving games.” [Game Studies Stream: Queering/Worlds, Panel Chair.]
Kathryn Brewster (Queerness and Games Conference, October 2018) “Canaries and Camwhores in the Coal Mine: affect, labour, and on-demand work on privately owned digital platforms.” [Panel: Affective Labor and Livestreaming. Panel Chair.]
Awards, Scholarships, Fellowships
Summer 2023, UC Irvine, Rob Kling Memorial Endowment Fellowship.
2022-2023, UC Irvine Dissertation Completion Fellowship.
2022, UCLA Center for Critical Internet Inquiry (c2i2) Tech Impact Network Dissertation Fellowship. Announcement.
Summer 2022, UC Irvine, Summer Inclusive Excellence Fellowship.
Winter 2021, UC Irvine, Center for Responsible, Ethical, and Accessible Technologies (CREATE) Fellowship.
2020-2022, UC Irvine, GAANN Fellow in Socially Responsible Computing.
2019, UC Irvine, Inclusive Streaming Initiative Research Fellow.