Expertise
Dr. Julia M. Hildebrand is Assistant Professor of Communication at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida. Originally from Germany, she earned her PhD in Communication, Culture, and Media at Drexel University. Her research lies at the intersections of critical media studies and mobilities research with a special interest in mobile technologies, visual communication, and human-machine interactions. Her work has been published in journals such as Media, Culture, & Society, Digital Culture & Society, Mobile Media & Communication, Explorations in Media Ecology, and Mobilities. Her book Aerial Play: Drone Medium, Mobility, Communication, and Culture was published in 2021 with Palgrave Macmillan as part of the Geographies of Media Series.
Her research has won several awards: The 2024 Marshall McLuhan Award for Outstanding Book in the Field of Media Ecology, the 2020 Harold A. Innis Award for Outstanding Dissertation in the Field of Media Ecology, the 2019 Outstanding Dissertation Award by Drexel University, and the 2018 Emerging Scholar Research Award by the Mobile Communication Interest Group of the International Communication Association. In addition, she has won top paper awards by the American Association of Geographers and the National Communication Association.
Her collaborative and creative work in media ecology was honored with the 2019 Walter Benjamin Award for Outstanding Article and the John Culkin Award for Outstanding Praxis in the Field of Media Ecology.
She serves on the Editorial Board of the journal Explorations in Media Ecology and on the Executive Board of the Media Ecology Association.
At Eckerd College, she teaches such courses as Media and Society, Critical Studies in New Media, Media Ethics, and AI Culture and Communication.