🆔 Dr. Craig Ryder identifies as a digital anthropologist.
🇩🇪 He is a post-doctoral researcher at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU), where he works on the SMALLPLATFORMS project (Beyond the Big Tech: Contentious Speech on Small Platforms) funded by European Research Council (ERC) (2025-2027).
🎓 Ryder holds a PhD from SOAS University of London (2020-2024).
🌍 His research is grounded in ethnographic methods and focuses on social media as a site of political participation, specifically in the English-speaking world.
📲 Broadly, he is interested in digital technologies and what they mean for ethnographic researchers. His work is valuable because it incorporates big data into the ethnographic process, creating what he calls “augmented ethnography” (Ryder, 2024).
🇱🇰 Ryder’s PhD was about social media in Sri Lanka and how people use social media to acquire influence.
🙇🏿♀️ Conceptually, Ryder argues that the affordances of social media become more visible during times of sociotechnical crisis, such as an internet shutdown (article forthcoming for New Media & Society).
🧪 Methodologically, a forthcoming article with with Prof Daniel Miller (UCL) on “augmented interviews” makes a new contribution.
🇬🇧 Ryder’s current research is about social media in the UK and why people are gravitating to smaller, alternative platforms.
💌 If you are interested in his work please free to contact him on drcraigryder [at] gmail [dot] com
😭 Regrettably he remains on X @ryder_withawhy
😆 So find help him to commit to Bluesky @drryder.bsky.social
🚴🏽♂️ IRL Ryder can be found mostly cycling around South East London, reading/ sunbathing at Goldsmiths and eating rice & curry close by. If you also enjoy these activities, come & join him…
