Hi! I'm Emerson Johnston (she/her), a policy researcher at Stanford University. I currently work as a research assistant at the Hoover Institution’s Technology Policy Accelerator, where I contribute to the Stanford Emerging Technology Review and lead research on emerging technologies and their implications for national security. I'm also the communications and membership coordinator for the <a href =aoir.org>Association of Internet Researchers</a>.

    My research sits at the intersection of media history, platform studies, and policy. I'm interested in how digital infrastructures (mainly recommendation algorithms and content moderation systems at the moment, but also platform architectures more broadly) shape identity, community formation, and political life. I also study the historical evolution of digital communication, from early internet networks to contemporary social media, asking how past technological transitions can inform our understanding of current sociotechnical change. My work uses ethnographic methods, network analysis, and archival research, and has been published by the Hoover Institution, the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI, and Dialogues on Digital Society. I've also been lucky enough to present my work at conferences including the American Sociological Association's Annual Meeting, the National Communication Association's Annual Meeting, and the International Network for Social Network Analysis' Sunbelt Conference, among others.

    Outside of my formal academic work, I'm building what I hope will be one of the first comprehensive, freely accessible archives of queer literature, a project that started when I tried to document sapphic pulp fiction for a class and kept hitting walls. Doing this research, it became clear just how much of this history is at risk. At every point in history when queer identities were persecuted, queer books were burned. Many are lost forever, and others only exist as a bibliographic entry in another work or in a single library or private collection. As a queer woman myself, books were integral to my own coming out journey, and I'm hoping this archive can help preserve the thousands of books that were similarly integral to queer people for centuries.

    As of 2026, I am currently on leave from Stanford University's M.A. program in the History of Science, Technology, Environment, and Medicine, where I'm training as a media historian. My thesis examines how institutional and historical legacies have shaped the framing of the internet as a telecommunications system rather than a civic or social space. Previously, I received my B.S. in 'Politics, Philosophy, and Economics' and in 'History, Culture, and Law', summa cum laude, from Northeastern University, and my M.A. in International Policy from Stanford, where I am a Knight-Hennessy Scholar. I also served for five years in the U.S. Army Reserve as a 38B Civil Affairs Specialist, and spent two years working as a Political Officer for the U.S. Department of State. These experiences continue to inform my perspective on digital governance, diplomacy, and the evolving role of civic institutions in technological society.

    If you’re here and interested in my work, don’t be a stranger. I’m always happy to connect and collaborate!

While you're here...

# Check out and follow the custom feed I run on BlueSky that tracks developments and discussions on internet cultures, subcultures, and countercultures.

And for a laugh...

# Find out which subatomic particle you are with this cute persona quiz I made for my girlfriend (who's a particle physicist if that wasn't clear).

# Watch my 2024 N.O.B.E.L. (not official but exceedingly ludacris) theories night presentation about the birth lottery and overlooked factors in academic success.