Anthony Kelly

Dr Anthony Kelly is an Irish Research Council (IRC) Government of Ireland Fellow in the Department of Media Studies at Maynooth University (MU) and a Visiting Fellow in the Department of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). Dr Kelly’s IRC-funded research examines the antagonistic digital labour practices of political influencer social media audiences. More specifically, his project explores how such audiences articulate their status as platform media stakeholders, including how they situate themselves with respect to reactionary political influencers and the politics of antagonism they frequently advocate. Dr Kelly holds a PhD in Media and Communications from LSE, awarded in 2021. His PhD thesis explored the role of online partisan media in contemporary American politics, with an empirical focus on “below-the-line” commentary on a conservative news and opinion website during the 2016 US presidential election. Dr Kelly's doctoral research was supported by a National University of Ireland Travelling Studentship in Media and Communications. Prior to commencing his PhD, Dr Kelly was an Assistant Lecturer in Anthropology at MU, having designed and delivered seminar-based modules on digital anthropology, political media, and globalisation. More recently, Dr Kelly served as Digital Anthropologist at L’Atelier BNP Paribas, where he designed and directed research on the social and cultural implications of emerging technologies.