Doing Social Research: The Podcast · Doing Social Research

Researching Cyberviolence & the Politics of Not Caring with Dr. Lena Hübner

·1 hr 19 min·3 clips

Phyllis Rippey opens by framing the podcast as a place where social research can feel a little less distant. She introduces Dr. Lena Huebner as an assistant professor of communication at the University of Ottawa. Huebner’s work sits at the intersection of cyberviolence, digital information practices, and the experiences of racialized and disadvantaged women in Quebec. It also reaches into poverty, feminist activism against sexual violence, and the role whiteness plays in academic research. Her doctoral thesis examined relationships to politics and digital information practices in modest-income settings in Quebec through the prism of class, whiteness, nation, and gender. The conversation keeps circling back to those overlapping forces and to the way they shape what people can access and how they move through digital spaces. That gives the discussion a lived-in feel. It does not stay abstract for long. Rippey repeatedly pulls the conversation back to the problem of making research legible outside the academy. She says the show exists to help listeners tell the difference between conspiracy theory and academic inquiry, and to show that researchers are ordinary people rather than distant gatekeepers. Huebner’s topic gives that mission real weight. The conversation then turns toward the messier politics of online information. Rippey reflects on platforms trying to handle fake news and violence while still sharing information. She says it is hard to know what the right answer is. The episode lands on the difficulty of teaching bias, objectivity, and nuance in a system shaped by money and political interests. Rippey is blunt that the battle is uphill. That honesty keeps the episode grounded. It also makes the research feel urgent. The closing returns to the podcast’s broader project of public scholarship and demystification.

As heard by us

A patient look at cyber violence, bias, and the strain between inquiry and agenda.

Dr. Lena Huebner's work on cyber violence gives this episode its center of gravity, with a focus on how racialized and disadvantaged women in Quebec use digital information and make their way through it.

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Why you'd press play

You want a clear, human guide to cyberviolence and digital information practices.

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