Hannah Yelin

Dr Hannah Yelin

Small Group Project 2022-23

Digital Hate and the impact of the ‘Impact Agenda’ on public academics

We examine cultures of digital hate as experienced by a community under pressure from employers to be visible online. The UK government has precipitated a shift towards ‘public academia’ and the ‘impact agenda’, through the Research Excellence Framework (REF) and Research Councils (UKRI) funding criteria. Academics are therefore increasingly encouraged to maintain a public profile to disseminate work through traditional and social media. Given that the risks of visibility are unevenly distributed in ways that exacerbate harm to already marginalised groups, we explore whether visibility exposes academics to the kinds of online misogyny, racism, ableism and transphobia that characterise cultures of online hate.

More information

Research outcomes

Clancy, L., & Yelin, H. (2026).

Digital hate, health and safety, and the labour politics of public academia: ‘Universities don’t value this sort of work at all’. The Sociological Review.

Areas of interest

Celebrity Memoir Women

Cohort

FG8

Biography

Dr Hannah Yellin is a Reader in Media and Culture at Oxford Brookes University, and Subject Coordinator for the BA Communication, Media and Culture degree programme. Before returning to academia to do a PhD at UEA, they had a 12-year career in the media, producing award-winning work for organisations such as the BBC and UKTV. They run the Celebrity Culture Club, a series of events bringing together academics, those working in the media, and interested members of the public to discuss the important issues of the day relating to celebrity culture.

Research interests centre around celebrity memoir and women in the public eye. Their book, Celebrity Memoir: From Ghostwriting to Gender Politics, is forthcoming with Palgrave, and they are co-investigator on the research project Girls, Leadership and Women in the Public Eye.

Biographical details correct as of 27.04.26