Lauren S. Berliner is an Assistant Professor of Media and Communication Studies and Cultural Studies at University of Washington Bothell, where she teaches courses on media praxis and participatory media culture. Her research engages ongoing transformations in everyday and amateur media production practice, intervening in academic, intrapersonal, community, commercial, and activist contexts. Her forthcoming book, LGBTQ Youth and the Paradox of Digital Media Empowerment, examines how LGBTQ youth media producers negotiate the structural conditions of funding and publicity and incorporate digital self-representations into practices of identity management. Her current research project is a collaboration with medical anthropologist Nora Kenworthy to understand, document and disseminate knowledge about the uses, impacts, and consequences of the increasing pervasiveness of crowdfunding for healthcare in the US. Berliner is also a filmmaker and the co-curator of The Festival of (In)Appropriation annual showcase of experimental films.