About Me

Say hi on Twitter or Mastodon!

I’m Ysabel (pronounced is-a-bel) and I work as a Senior Lecturer in Digital Communication at the University of Sheffield, UK. I currently research (1) social media platforms’ content moderation policies and (2) young people’s experiences of anonymous apps.

I’m the former Chair of the Digital Culture and Communication section of the European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA), the former Book Reviews Editor for Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, and a former Intern at the Microsoft Research Social Media Collective.

My writing and research have been featured in venues like WIRED, VICE, BBC News, The Guardian and The Telegraph. I am also on Meta’s Suicide and Self-Injury (SSI) Advisory Committee and my contributions have been credited in venues like ELLE, The Huffington Post, The Independent, Stylist Magazine and London Evening Standard. For press-related, consultancy, speaking, and other enquiries, please email me at y [dot] gerrard [at] sheffield [dot] ac [dot] uk.