Draft:Tero Karppi

Tero Karppi (born 1981, Hämeenlinna) is Finnish media studies scholar whose work examines social, political, and cultural theories and critiques of social media platforms. Karppi is Associate Professor at the Institute of Communication, Culture, Information, and Technology at the University of Toronto. In his book, Disconnect – Facebook’s Affective Bonds published by University of Minnesota Press in 2018, “Karppi uses the idea of disconnection to explore the limits of connectivity that Facebook defends so vigorously.” Karppi has previously held the position of Assistant Professor of Media Theory at the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Research
For the past decade, Karppi’s main body of work has focused on digital disconnection studies. In 2021, Karppi together with Aleena Chia, and Ana Jorge co-edited an anthology tilted Reckoning with Social Media (Rowman and Littlefield). The same year Karppi's co-authored book titled Undoing Networks came out with University of Minnesota Press and Meson Press. According to a review, Undoing Networks "pioneeringly examines what people will face and experience in disconnection. It provides a solid ground for us to question the reasonability of our current networks and to imagine a fresh lifestyle embedded in disconnection.” In the introduction of the book, Karppi writes: “The vectors of disconnection studies constitute different methodological practices dedicated to exploring the individual and collective tactics and strategies of living with networks from empirical research to media art and research creation, and find inspiration in the media- theoretical underpinnings of failures, breaks, disruptions, and states of exception.” The failures, breaks, and disruptions of technology are Karppi’s other interest area. In 2015, The Boston Globe interviewed Karppi about a research paper on flash crashes, financial algorithms, hackers, and the vulnerabilities of the contemporary trading ecosystem. The co-authored paper was published in Theory, Culture & Society.

Books
Karppi, Tero, Disconnect - Facebook's Affective Bonds. University of Minnesota Press, 2018.

Karppi, Tero, Urs Stäheli, Clara Wieghorst, and Lea P. Zierott. Undoing Networks. University of Minnesota Press & Meson Press, 2021.

Chia, Aleena, Ana Jorge, and Tero Karppi. Reckoning with Social Media. Rowman & Littlefield, 2021.