The University of Texas at Austin

Graduate Student, Radio, Television and Film

Doctoral Candidate

University of Texas at Austin

Thesis Title: Engaging the Latino Family: Immigration, ICT Use and Generational Change

About

Jeremiah is pursuing his doctorate at the University of Texas at Austin in the area of information and communication technology (ICT) use in the immigrant process, especially among U.S. Latino immigrants, as well as, new media, virtual worlds and digital humanities. Jeremiah has published numerous academic articles including, "Demographics of Virtual Worlds" (Journal of Virtual Worlds Research, Vol. 1, Number 2, 2008); is the co-editor of the forthcoming book titled, "Persistence of Inequity in the Technopolis: Race, Class, Gender and the Digital Divide in Austin, Texas" with co-editors Joseph Straubhaar, Ph.D. (U. of Texas at Austin), Zeynep Tufecki, Ph.D. (U. of Maryland at Baltimore), and Becky Lentz, Ph.D. (McGill University) to be published by UT Press in 2011; is the principal author of a chapter titled “Cultural Geography of Race in Austin”; the lead author of an article published in the International Migration journal titled, “Generational Shifts in Language Use Among US Latinos: Mobility, Education and Occupation,” published in January 2011; and an invited contributor to several books about virtual worlds research.  Jeremiah has been a leader in developing new methodologies for the study of social stratification and digital humanities / community mapping, as well as, is a lead participant in the MediaNola Digital Humanities project at Tulane University that was recently funded by a seed grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).  Additionally, he has been a supporting researcher on the Austin Internet and Global Citizen Survey in partnership with the City of Austin Telecommunications Office, the University of Texas at Austin / Portugal Digital Divide Research Project – a comparative research project focusing on multigenerational use of information and communications technologies (ICTs).

Jeremiah Spence is the founder and editor of the peer-reviewed, online, academic publication: Journal of Virtual Worlds Research, is the director of the Virtual Worlds Institute, and has given presentations related to virtual worlds research at conferences in Brazil, Canada, Germany, Israel, the Netherlands and the United States. Jeremiah has a Master of Arts in International Communications Theory and Technology Policy, and has been a visiting researcher at the University of São Paulo′s School of the Future and the Institute of Information Science at the Federal University of Bahia, both in Brazil. Additionally, he has been invited to speak on the virtual worlds and immersive technologies at the National Research Council of Canada′s Institute of Information Technology, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Unisinos, the Eduverse Foundation (Netherlands), and the University of Bonn (Germany). Jeremiah is fluent in both Portuguese and Spanish.

Jeremiah is currently preparing his doctoral dissertation on the topic of “Maintaining Multilayered Identities: Migrants in the Transnational Media Space  - A Case Study of Latino Migrants in Austin, Texas.”  Jeremiah will be pursuing specialized training in Pedagogy and Distance Education/Instructional Design at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul in Porto Algre, Brazil during the Fall 2011 semester.

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