rwg


Robert W. Gehl

Photo of Robert W. Gehl

Department of Communication & Media Studies

Associate Professor
Ontario Research Chair in Digital Governance for Social Justice

Email: rwg@yorku.ca
Primary website: Homepage

Attached CV

Media Requests Welcome
Accepting New Graduate Students


*NB: I am now seeking grad students and post-docs: please see https://fossacademic.tech/2023/07/02/GradStudentsPostDocs.html for more information.*

Dr. Robert W. Gehl is an associate professor in the Department of Communication and Media Studies at York University and Ontario Research Chair in Digital Governance for Social Justice.

He is a Fulbright scholar and award-winning author whose research focuses on contemporary communication technologies. Before joining York University as an Ontario Research Chair of Digital Governance for Social Justice, he held an endowed research chair at Louisiana Tech.

He has published over two dozen articles in journals such as New Media & Society, Communication Theory, Social Media + Society, and Media, Culture and Society. His books include Reverse Engineering Social Media, Weaving the Dark Web and Social Engineering, published in 2022 by MIT Press. He also has published a co-edited collection of essays, Socialbots and Their Friends.

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Degrees

Ph.D., Cultural Studies (George Mason University)
M.A., English (Western Michigan University)
B.S., English (Central Michigan University)

Appointments

Faculty of Graduate Studies

Research Interests

Media , Culture and Cultural Studies, alternative social media, software studies, social cybersecurity
  • Nancy Baym Book Award by Association of Internet Researchers -

Current Research Projects

Ethical Alternative Social Media studies

    Summary:

    This project engages with activists building ethical alternative social media, social media that are more democratically run that their corporate counterparts.

    See more
Books

Publication
Year

Cinque, Toija, Alexia Maddox, and Robert W. Gehl, eds. The Dark Social: Online Practices of Resistance, Motility and Power. New York: Routledge, 2023.

2023

Gehl, Robert W., and Sean T. Lawson. 2022. Social Engineering: How Crowdmasters, Phreaks, Hackers, and Trolls Create a New Form of Manipulative Communication. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

2022

Gehl, Robert W. 2018. Weaving the Dark Web: Legitimacy on Freenet, Tor, and I2P. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

2018

Gehl, Robert W, and Maria Bakardjieva. 2017. Socialbots and Their Friends: Digital Media and the Automation of Sociality. New York: Routledge.

2016

Gehl, Robert W. 2014. Reverse Engineering Social Media: Software, Culture, and Political Economy in New Media Capitalism. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.

2014

Book Chapters

Publication
Year

Gehl, Robert W. 2020. “Afterword: The Legitimacy of Produsage.” In Produsing Theory in a Digital World 3.0, edited by Rebecca Lind, 245–55. New York: Peter Lang.

2020

Journal Articles

Publication
Year

Siuda, Piotr, Jakub Nowak, and Robert W Gehl. “Darknet Imaginaries in Internet Memes: The Discursive Malleability of the Cultural Status of Digital Technologies.” Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 28, no. 1 (January 1, 2023): zmac023. https://doi.org/10.1093/jcmc/zmac023.

2023

Gehl, Robert W., and Diana Zulli. 2022. “The Digital Covenant: Non-Centralized Platform Governance on the Mastodon Social Network.” Information, Communication & Society 0 (0): 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2022.2147400.

2022

Gehl, Robert W. 2021. “Dark Web Advertising: The Dark Magic System on Tor Hidden Service Search Engines.” Continuum, October, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1080/10304312.2021.1983251.

2021

Gorissen, Sebastiaan, and Robert W. Gehl. 2021. “When Wikipedia Met Tor: Trials of Legitimacy at a Key Moment in Internet History.” Internet Histories 0 (0): 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/24701475.2021.2015967.

2021

Zulli, Diana, Miao Liu, and Robert Gehl. 2020. “Rethinking the ‘Social’ in ‘Social Media’: Insights into Topology, Abstraction, and Scale on the Mastodon Social Network:” New Media & Society, July.

2020

Gehl, Robert W., and Fenwick McKelvey. “Bugging out: Darknets as Parasites of Large-Scale Media Objects.” Media, Culture & Society 41, no. 2 (March 1, 2019): 219–35.

2019

Other

Publication
Year

Gehl, Robert W. “Opinion | Elon Musk’s Stance on Free Speech Doesn’t Include Competition to Twitter.” Toronto Star. December 18, 2022, sec. Opinion. https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2022/12/18/elon-musks-stance-on-free-speech-doesnt-include-competition-to-twitter.html.

2022


Current Courses

Term Course Number Section Title Type
Fall 2024 AP/CMDS1666 3.0 A Social Media, Public Relations & Society SEMR


Upcoming Courses

Term Course Number Section Title Type
Winter 2025 GS/STS6001 3.0 M Intro. to Science & Technology Studies SEMR


*NB: I am now seeking grad students and post-docs: please see https://fossacademic.tech/2023/07/02/GradStudentsPostDocs.html for more information.*

Dr. Robert W. Gehl is an associate professor in the Department of Communication and Media Studies at York University and Ontario Research Chair in Digital Governance for Social Justice.

He is a Fulbright scholar and award-winning author whose research focuses on contemporary communication technologies. Before joining York University as an Ontario Research Chair of Digital Governance for Social Justice, he held an endowed research chair at Louisiana Tech.

He has published over two dozen articles in journals such as New Media & Society, Communication Theory, Social Media + Society, and Media, Culture and Society. His books include Reverse Engineering Social Media, Weaving the Dark Web and Social Engineering, published in 2022 by MIT Press. He also has published a co-edited collection of essays, Socialbots and Their Friends.

Degrees

Ph.D., Cultural Studies (George Mason University)
M.A., English (Western Michigan University)
B.S., English (Central Michigan University)

Appointments

Faculty of Graduate Studies

Research Interests

Media , Culture and Cultural Studies, alternative social media, software studies, social cybersecurity

Awards

  • Nancy Baym Book Award by Association of Internet Researchers -

Current Research Projects

Ethical Alternative Social Media studies

    Summary:

    This project engages with activists building ethical alternative social media, social media that are more democratically run that their corporate counterparts.

All Publications


Book Chapters

Publication
Year

Gehl, Robert W. 2020. “Afterword: The Legitimacy of Produsage.” In Produsing Theory in a Digital World 3.0, edited by Rebecca Lind, 245–55. New York: Peter Lang.

2020

Books

Publication
Year

Cinque, Toija, Alexia Maddox, and Robert W. Gehl, eds. The Dark Social: Online Practices of Resistance, Motility and Power. New York: Routledge, 2023.

2023

Gehl, Robert W., and Sean T. Lawson. 2022. Social Engineering: How Crowdmasters, Phreaks, Hackers, and Trolls Create a New Form of Manipulative Communication. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

2022

Gehl, Robert W. 2018. Weaving the Dark Web: Legitimacy on Freenet, Tor, and I2P. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

2018

Gehl, Robert W, and Maria Bakardjieva. 2017. Socialbots and Their Friends: Digital Media and the Automation of Sociality. New York: Routledge.

2016

Gehl, Robert W. 2014. Reverse Engineering Social Media: Software, Culture, and Political Economy in New Media Capitalism. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.

2014

Journal Articles

Publication
Year

Siuda, Piotr, Jakub Nowak, and Robert W Gehl. “Darknet Imaginaries in Internet Memes: The Discursive Malleability of the Cultural Status of Digital Technologies.” Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 28, no. 1 (January 1, 2023): zmac023. https://doi.org/10.1093/jcmc/zmac023.

2023

Gehl, Robert W., and Diana Zulli. 2022. “The Digital Covenant: Non-Centralized Platform Governance on the Mastodon Social Network.” Information, Communication & Society 0 (0): 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2022.2147400.

2022

Gehl, Robert W. 2021. “Dark Web Advertising: The Dark Magic System on Tor Hidden Service Search Engines.” Continuum, October, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1080/10304312.2021.1983251.

2021

Gorissen, Sebastiaan, and Robert W. Gehl. 2021. “When Wikipedia Met Tor: Trials of Legitimacy at a Key Moment in Internet History.” Internet Histories 0 (0): 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/24701475.2021.2015967.

2021

Zulli, Diana, Miao Liu, and Robert Gehl. 2020. “Rethinking the ‘Social’ in ‘Social Media’: Insights into Topology, Abstraction, and Scale on the Mastodon Social Network:” New Media & Society, July.

2020

Gehl, Robert W., and Fenwick McKelvey. “Bugging out: Darknets as Parasites of Large-Scale Media Objects.” Media, Culture & Society 41, no. 2 (March 1, 2019): 219–35.

2019

Other

Publication
Year

Gehl, Robert W. “Opinion | Elon Musk’s Stance on Free Speech Doesn’t Include Competition to Twitter.” Toronto Star. December 18, 2022, sec. Opinion. https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2022/12/18/elon-musks-stance-on-free-speech-doesnt-include-competition-to-twitter.html.

2022


Current Courses

Term Course Number Section Title Type
Fall 2024 AP/CMDS1666 3.0 A Social Media, Public Relations & Society SEMR


Upcoming Courses

Term Course Number Section Title Type
Winter 2025 GS/STS6001 3.0 M Intro. to Science & Technology Studies SEMR