Dr. Floor Fiers is an Assistant Professor at the Amsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCoR) at the University of Amsterdam. Their research examines the role of digital technologies in simultaneously reproducing social inequality and opening a range of opportunities for individuals, communities, and organisations. Across their work, they regularly return to the setting of online labor and the gig economy, in which the tension between digital technologies as a source of opportunity and risk is particularly pronounced.

At the University of Amsterdam, Floor is part of the program groupCommunication, Organisations, and Society. They joined the group after their Ph.D. in the Media, Technology and Society (MTS) program at Northwestern University, under the supervision of Dr. Aaron Shaw and Dr. Eszter Hargittai. Floor’s dissertation, entitled “Chasing the Ideal and Making It Work: Pursuing Employment in the Remote Gig Economy,” is available here.

Floor is a member of the inter-university research group Community Data Science Collective and the WebUse Project (University of Zurich). In the past, they have collaborated with the Citizens and Technology Lab (Cornell University) and the Center of Media Psychology and Social Influence (Northwestern University).

Floor’s research has appeared in top-tier Communication journals, such as International Journal of Communication, Information, Communication, and Society, and New Media & Society. Please see their Google Scholar profile for a full list of publications.

Brief background

Originally from the Netherlands, Floor attended the international boarding school United World College in Montezuma (NM, USA; see archived blog here). They pursued a BA in Sociology at St. Lawrence University (minors in Film and English). Their honors thesis (advised by Dr. Stephen Barnard; published by Social Media + Society) drew on digital ethnographic content analysis to understand the strategies users of the hashtag “Instagood” employ to seek status while hiding such labor.

Floor completed their Ph.D. in Communications at Northwestern University, under the supervision of Dr. Aaron Shaw and Dr. Eszter Hargittai. During their doctorate, they spent a year as a visiting scholar at the Internet & Society group at the University of Zurich. In addition to conducting and publishing research, Floor has taught multiple undergraduate courses, organized workshops (e.g., the pre-conference on global digital inequalities at International Communication Association 2023), and engaged in other forms of service.

Outside of academia, Floor is involved in the organization of two cultural festivals in the Netherlands. At Festival Hongerige Wolf, they curate the Art & Science program, which seeks to spark conversation and collaboration between academics, artists, and the general public. At Totaalfestival Bladel, they are a board member and spearhead the programming and communication working groups. Prior to the Ph.D., Floor worked as a videographer.