Bianca C. Reisdorf

Since August 2018, Dr. Bianca (Bibi) Reisdorf is a Quello Center Research Fellow. Bibi  is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of North Carolina – Charlotte, USA. Her work focuses on the intersection of inequalities and digital media and the Internet, with a focus on digital inequalities among marginalized populations. In her recent research, Dr. Reisdorf has been focusing on internet access in correctional settings and how returning citizens navigate a technology-dependent world after release. In addition, she is interested in proxy Internet use as well as how Internet users look for and evaluate information from various media sources.

In 2018, she joined The University of North Carolina at Charlotte, as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Studies. Prior to joining UNCC, she served as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Media and Information at Michigan State University. She joined the Quello Center as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in mid-August 2015 and was its Assistant Director from 2016 until 2018. Prior to joining the Quello Center, Bibi worked as a Lecturer and Director of Distance Learning in the Department of Media and Communication at the University of Leicester in the UK with a focus in digital media and research methods. In addition, she has been an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Department of Communication at the University of Cincinnati.

Bibi’s research interests include digital inequalities and policies, Internet use among vulnerable groups, and cross-national comparative studies that apply both qualitative and quantitative methods. She has been involved in the research project “Access Denied: A Qualitative Study of Inadequate Broadband Access in Rural Britain” (http://rural.oii.ox.ac.uk/) and she currently is developing a new study on the consequences of lack of Internet access in prisons for ex-convicts in their rehabilitation process.

Bibi received her D.Phil. degree in Information, Communication and the Social Sciences at the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, in 2012, having completed an M.A. in Sociology at the University of Bielefeld, Germany, in 2008. At Oxford, she was part of the team that conducted the Oxford Internet Surveys (OxIS), which tracked the use and impact of the Internet in Britain from 2003 through 2013.

As a Research Fellow, Bibi continues to contribute to important Center initiatives, including digital inequality projects, and in the development of new projects around issues of digital media and society.