- Research fellow, University of Technology Sydney
Emily Booth is a Research Fellow at the University of Technology in Sydney, Australia. Her PhD research explored how teenagers respond to adult influence on their reading practices in the contexts of leisure reading, school reading, and industry engagement. In 2019, she was awarded the UTS Social Impact Grant in-full for her project, ‘Investigating the publication of Australian picture books by and about people from diverse communities in 2018’, in partnership with Australian advocacy group Voices From the Intersection.
Since 2020, her research has explored the spread of social media mis/disinformation, conspiracy theories, and radicalisation. This includes work funded by the Facebook Research Award, ‘Content Policy Research on Social Media Platforms’, the Australian government Department of Home Affairs, the NSW Department of Communities and Justice, and more. In 2021, she received the Frances Henne Research Grant from the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) for her project exploring connections between teenagers' fiction reading and online misinformation practices.
Emily has published widely on diversity in Australia’s young adult fiction publishing industry, on misinformation and school education, and literature; and has been published on the Conversation and in radio programs. She has been a member of the UTS Human Research Ethics Committee since 2020, and was also a member of the University Student Conduct Committee (USCC) and Student Misconduct Appeals Committee (SMAC).
Outside of academia, she's worked in the publishing industry for a decade as a specialist in children's and young adult literature. She created and hosted the 'YABookmeet' event (2015-2020), hosting monthly interviews with 50+ local and international authors and academics and discussion groups with readers of all ages. In 2018, Emily became the first internationally-based contributor to global readers’ advisory service NoveList. She has presented at writers' festivals and conferences, and in 2019 she hosted the sold-out Sydney event for New York Times Best-Selling author Sarah J. Maas on her 'Kingdom of Ash' World Tour at City Recital Hall, at the request of Bloomsbury Australia. In 2021, she hosted the Australia and New Zealand event for Sarah J. Maas' 'A Court of Silver Flames' World Tour. In her role as a founding member of the Executive Board of the international YA Studies Association (YASA) (2020—), she has co-organised two international conferences in 2020 and 2022. The first featured 600+ attendees and presenters from 45 countries, 70+ individual pre-recorded papers, and 28 live events including roundtables, workshops, and social events.
Experience
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2024–presentPostdoctoral research fellow, University of Technology Sydney
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2020–2024Research assistant, University of Technology Sydney
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2021–2024Postdoctoral research fellow, Deakin University
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2020–2023Research assistant, University of New England
Education
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2021University of Technology Sydney, PhD
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2016University of Technology Sydney, Bachelor of Communication (Honours)
Publications
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2025Misinformation is not about bad facts: An analysis of the production and consumption of fringe content, EPJ Journal
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2025‘It’s not relevant because you already know all of it’: How Australian diaspora youth navigate truth and misinformation online, Media International Australia
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2025Beyond risk: Reducing the gap between diaspora youth digital citizenship needs and school curricula, Learning, Media and Technology
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2025“Follow the White Rabbit” Narrative Pleasure and Power in Conspiracy Theories and Disinformation Campaigns, Digital (Dis)Information Operations: Fooling the Five Eyes
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2025Before It’s Too Late: A State Space Model for the Early Prediction of Misinformation and Disinformation Engagement, roceedings of the ACM on Web Conference
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2025Public sector leaders not ‘linked in’: Opportunities for engagement and building public trust in government, Asia Pacific Public Relations Journal
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2025“We don’t want to hear anything else from you”: Culturally “diverse” authors and the Australian literary industry, TEXT Journal
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2024Mystery Fiction for Misinformation Resilience: Exploring connections between teens’ leisure reading and online misinformation practices, The Journal of Research on Libraries and Young Adults
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2024Conspiracy, Misinformation, Radicalisation: Understanding the online pathway to indoctrination and opportunities for intervention, Journal of Sociology
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2024Labelling, shadow bans and community resistance: did Meta’s strategy to suppress rather than remove COVID misinformation and conspiracy theory on Facebook slow the spread?, Media International Australia
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2024Love and Beauty on the Battlefield: Transcultural Influence and Transformation from Naoko Takeuchi’s Sailor Moon to Anglophone Young Adult Fantasy, The International Journal of Young Adult Literature
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2024The Effectiveness of Song and Music as pedagogical tools in elementary school science lessons: A systematic review of literature, International Journal of Education and the Arts
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2023Who is Telling ‘Australian’ Stories? The Results from the First Nations and People of Colour Writers Count, Journal of Language, Literature and Culture
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2022The Picture of Privilege: Examining the lack of diverse characters in 2018 Australian Children’s picture books, Jeunesse: Young People, Cultures, Texts
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2022The Illusion of Inclusion: Disempowered “Diversity” in 2018 Australian Children’s Picture Books, New Review of Children’s Literature and Librarianship
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2022Slipping to the Extreme: A Mixed Method to Explain How Extreme Opinions Infiltrate Online Discussions, International Conference on Web and Social Media
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2021Investigating the Publication of OwnVoices Australian Picture Books in 2018, Publishing Research Quarterly
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2021Behind Closed Gates: The Barriers to Self-Expression and Publication for Australian YA Authors of OwnVoices Fiction, International Research in Children’s Literature
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2021Identifying Inclusion: Publishing Industry Prejudice and the Lack of OwnVoices Books in Australian Young Adult Fiction, Research in Diversity in Youth Literature
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2021“That Authenticity Is Missing”: Australian Authors of OwnVoices Fiction on Authenticity and Outsider Writers, The ALAN Review
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2020“The Expectations That We Be Educators”: The Views of Australian Authors of Young Adult Fiction on Their OwnVoices Novels as Windows for Learning about Marginalized Experiences, The Journal of Research on Libraries and Young Adults
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2018'Don't talk about the gay character': Barriers to queer young adult fiction and authors in schools and libraries, English in Australia
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2018Towards diversity in young adult fiction: Australian YA authors’ publishing experiences and its implications for YA librarians and readers’ advisory services, Journal of the Australian Library and Information Association
Grants and Contracts
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2021Frances Henne Research Grant
- Role:
- Chief Investigator
- Funding Source:
- Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA)
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2019Investigating the publication of Australian picture books by and about people from diverse communities in 2018
- Role:
- Chief Investigator
- Funding Source:
- UTS Centre for Social Justice and Inclusion
Professional Memberships
- The Australian Sociological Association
- Young Adult Library Services Association
- Australian Library and Information Association
- Young Adult Studies Association
Contact Emily for
- General
- Media request
- Speaking request
- Consulting / Advising
- Research collaboration
- Research supervision
- Location: Australia
- Website
- Article Feed
- ORCID
- Joined
