As a public commentator of Internet cultures, Dr. Tran reckons with the entanglements between social media and controversial play. Their work places a special emphasis on livestreaming, platform logics, influencer industries, and feminist tactics for survival in professional gaming. This work has been published in journals such as Television & New Media, JCMS, New Media & Society, and other venues.
Dr. Tran is also a proud cofounder of the Content Creator Scholars Network (CCSN). You can read (or watch) Dr. Tran’s media commentaries in features from Rolling Stone, The Guardian, WIRED, BBC Future, CBC, Business Insider, Slate, The Globe and Mail, and other new outlets. Their work is also frequently translated into poetic and journalistic formats, with news features in The Conversation, Midnight Sun, and The Puritan, in addition to scholarly performance workshops on/about Zoom.
Selected Research Publications
Tran, C. H. (2024). Room with a viewership: Visibility work & Twitch.tv in the domestic context. Information, Communication & Society, 27(12), 2281–2296. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2024.2396615
Tran, C. H. (2024). Twitch spouse: Livestreaming and the legacy of spousal labour in the video game industry. Global Media and China, 9(2), 173–187. https://doi.org/10.1177/20594364241247675
Tran, C. H. (2023). Making up over Zoom: An autoethnography of streaming in/as media scholarship. JCMS: Journal of Cinema and Media Studies, 62(4), 167–173. https://doi.org/10.1353/cj.2023.a904633
Tran, C. H. (2022). “Never battle alone”: Egirls & the gender(ed) war on video game live streaming as ‘real’ work. Television & New Media, 23(5), 509–520. https://doi.org/10.1177/15274764221080930
Tran, C. H. (2021). Stream(age) dreams: Zoom-bombs, glitter bombs & other doctoral fairy-tales. Communication, Culture & Critique, 14(2), 356–360. https://doi.org/10.1093/ccc/tcab028
Selected Media Appearances
“How tall is Mark Carney? Inside our secret obsession with the heights of politicians — and what it says about us.” Toronto Star. (2025, April 25). Link
“How a TikTok Code Word Is Exposing the Limits of Online Organizing.” Rolling Stone. (2025, February 3). Link
“Why can companies advertise nicotine pouches in Quebec?” CBC News. (2024, June 10). Link
“$7,000 a day for five catchphrases: The TikTokers pretending to be ‘non-playable characters.’” The Guardian. (2023, July 19). Link
Selected Creative Writing
“knives chau walks away from omelas.” The Ex-Puritan. https://ex-puritan.ca/knives-chau-walks-away
Tran, C. H. “SEO Principles for STC Influencers on the GO.” In A. De Leon, T. Mutonji & N. Ramoutar (Eds.), FEEL WAYS: A Scarborough Anthology (pp. 55–56). Mawenzi House Publishers.