Time: 4:00pm-5:30pm (HKT)
Date: April 28, 2025
Mode: Room 206 Runme Shaw Building/by ZOOM​​​​​​​
Speaker: Dr. Rille Raaper (Durham University)
Chair: Professor David Carless (The University of Hong Kong)
Registration link: https://hku.au1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_7QBo2H2as6yLVMa

ABSTRACT: Contemporary student experiences of higher education are mediated by technology where intersections between in-person and digital experiences continue to evolve in new ways as technology develops. Research has shown that digital technologies help students sustain existing social networks but also contribute to developing new peer groups, interests and identities. This talk argues that within marketised higher education, where traditional support systems are strained, student influencers – students who produce educational content on social media platforms – have emerged as unexpected providers of academic and emotional support for their peers. Utilising a Foucauldian framework and drawing on 13 in-depth interviews with UK-based #studytalk creators, this paper explores the construction of student influencer subjectivity and their strategies for navigating this complex space. Findings reveal how students leverage their success as academically high-achieving students to build legitimacy, negotiate ethical boundaries, and resist the toxicity of certain study cultures. The findings show that these students do not just thrive as influencers, but they engage with ethical reflection to set certain parameters for their practice. I invite the audience to reflect on nuanced understandings of how students negotiate peer support and self-making while offering theoretical insights into the subjectification processes within the burgeoning influencer economy. 

Bio: Rille Raaper is Associate Professor and the Director of Research in the School of Education, Durham University with research interests in the sociology of higher education, specifically student identity and experience. Her research is primarily concerned with how universities organise their work in competitive higher education markets, and the implications market forces have on students. Rille is the author of ‘Student Identity and Political Agency. Activism, Representation and Consumer Rights’ (Routledge, 2024), and editor or co-editor of ‘The Bloomsbury Handbook of Student Voice in Higher Education’ (2023), ‘Handbook on Academic Freedom’ (2022), and ‘Contemporary Dynamics of Student Experience and Belonging in Higher Education’ (2023).