Hi, welcome to Tianyang’s website!

✉️ Email: tianyangfu [at] utexas [dot] edu

My name is Tianyang Fu [符天扬] (she/they). I am a Ph.D. student in Communication Studies (Organizational Communication & Technology) at Moody College of Communication, the University of Texas at Austin. I participate in the Graduate Portfolio Program in Ethical AI.

My research sits between the political economy of communication and critical organizational communication studies, with special concerns of digital capitalism and algorithmic management. Rooted in Marxist theory, I examine how emerging ICTs constitute labor relations, shape workers’ agency, and produce new forms of organizational authority and legitimacy, with particular attention to how digital platforms reconfigure class conflict and the possibilities of collective resistance and social activism. Methodologically, I am committed to ethnographic and qualitative approaches, while increasingly interested in experimenting with vibe coding to extend the reach of critical inquiry.

🎓 I obtained a B.A. in Journalism (Intercultural Communication) at Beijing Foreign Studies University with a minor in International Economics and Trade, and later an M.A. in Social Sciences at the University of Chicago with a concentration on sociology.

🏆 I received the 2023 Dallas Smythe Award at IAMCR.

My last name 符 means signum. It originates in ancient China (770–476 BCE) as a material carrier of authority, a token split in two to authenticate imperial orders and authorize power. Incidentally, the relationship between power and materiality is also what drives my curiosity in critical communication studies.