Jermaine Anthony Richards is a comparative communication, technology, and media scholar and a PhD candidate (ABD) at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School, where he is also a Paul and Daisy Soros Fellow and a Public Voices Fellow at the OpEd Project. Working across historical and contemporary periods, his work centers on the production of violence: the rules, standards, and sequences of violence’s enactment during times of great human crisis, risk, and disaster. With a focus on procedural media systems, he engages this topic across increasing scales of interactivity, materiality, and relationality.

Richards’ dissertation bridges critical theory, communication studies, game studies, and Black studies to explore the communicative mechanics of social impact games, aiming to address multiscale problems, crises, risks, and disasters. The project is advised by Robeson Taj Frazier (Chair), Zakiyyah Iman Jackson, and Henry Guy Jenkins III.

Jermaine earned his BS in Communications Technology (Digital Systems Engineering) and Studio Art at York College, CUNY. He also holds graduate degrees from the London School of Economics and Political Science (MSc in Global Media, AdClubNY Presidential Scholar) and the University of Southern California (MA in Global Communication, MA in Communication, LSE-USC Global Research Scholar, and a certificate in Science and Technology Studies).

Richards began his career as a producer at Wieden+Kennedy, where he oversaw the production of Momo Pixel's Hair Nah, a viral game that critiques racialized bodily invasion. The Tate Modern, V&A, and Smithsonian exhibited it; Vogue and The New York Times featured it; and MIT, Harvard, Stanford, Chicago, Goldsmiths, and Oxbridge regularly teach it for its contributions to cultural movements surrounding the enactment and implementation of civil rights law (i.e., the CROWN Act).

As a digital development policy analyst and advisor, Richards served as a New America Fellow. He researched the impact of digital transformation on ethnic and gender minorities in Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, Myanmar/Burma, and Viet Nam, supported by Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

In his spare time, Richards works on developing his production studio, plays his drums and guitars, records music, writes fiction, or publishes public thought pieces on digital entertainment.

Read more about Jermaine Anthony’s journey here. Resume, CV, and references are available upon request.