Ruth Tsuria , Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Communication
Department of Communication Media and the Arts
(973) 761-7427
Email
Arts and Sciences Hall
Room 224
Ruth Tsuria, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Communication
Department of Communication Media and the Arts
Dr. Tsuria’s research investigates the intersection of digital media, religion/culture,
and social norms as they relate to gender and sexuality. Her work focuses on developing
theoretical tools to understand online discourse and interrogate the relationship
between technology and society; discourse and power.
She is the author of Keeping Women in Their Digital Place: The Maintenance of Jewish
Gender Norms Online (PSU) and has published more than 25 articles and book chapters
in prestigious academic outlets, such as The International Journal of Communication,
The Communication Review, and Social Media + Society. Her research has been recognized
and awarded by several institutions, including the inaugural Network for New Media,
Religion, and Digital Culture’s Digital Religion Research Award.
She is currently working on an edited book on Religion and AI (Bloomsbury).
Education
- Ph.D., Texas A&M University
- M.A., Copenhagen University, Denmark
- B.A., Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
Scholarship
Books
- Tsuria, R. (2024). Keeping Women in Their Digital Place: The Maintenance of Jewish Gender Norms Online. Penn State University Press.
- Campbell, H. and Tsuria, R. (Eds.). (2021). Digital Religion 2.0: Understanding Religion in a Digital Age. Routledge.
- Williams, A., Tsuria, R., Robinson L., (Eds.). (2018). Media and Power in International Contexts: perspectives on Agency and Identity. UK: Emerald Publishing.
Peer Reviewed Journal Articles
- Tsuria, R. & Tsuria, Y. (2024) Artificial Intelligence’s understanding of religion: Investigating the moralistic approaches presented by generative Artificial Intelligence tools. Religions.
- Yadlin, A., Tsuria, R., & Nissenbaum, A. (2024).Understanding Researcher Risk and Safety in Qualitative Research Online. Digital Society, 3(4).
- Tsuria, R. (2021). Digital Media: When God Becomes Everybody—The Blurring of Sacred and Profane. Religions 12(2):110. DOI: 10.3390/rel12020110
- Tsuria, R., Bellar, W., Campbell, H., and Cho, J. (2021). Tension between Technological and Religious Affordances in the Design and Presentation of Sacred Text Mobile Applications. Journal of Contemporary Religion 36(1), 57-78.
- Tsuria, R. (2020). The Discourse of Practice – Online Q&A as normalizing gender and sexual behaviors. International Journal of Communication 14(2020), 3595–3613.
- Tsuria, R. (2020). Get out of church! The case of #EmptyThePews: Twitter Hashtag between Resistance and Community. Information 11(6), 335. DOI: 10.3390/info11060335
- Tsuria, R. (2020). Digital Divide in Light of Religion, Gender, and Women’s Digital Participation. Journal of Information, Communication & Ethics in Society. Vol. 18 No. 3, pp. 405-413. DOI: 10.1108/JICES-03-2020-0028
- Tsuria, R., & Campbell, H. A. (2020). “In My Own Opinion”: Negotiation of Rabbinical Authority Online in Responsa Within Kipa.co.il. Journal of Communication Inquiry, 45(1), 65–84. DOI: 10.1177/0196859920924384
- Yadlin-Segal, A., Tsuria R. and Bellar, W. (2020). The Ethics of Studying Digital Contexts: Reflections from Three Empirical Case Studies. Human Behavior and Emerging Technologies 2020:2, 168–178. DOI: 10.1002/hbe2.183
- Tsuria, R. (2020). The Space Between Us: Theorizing Online Interreligious Dialogue. Religion 50:3, 437-454. DOI: 10.1080/0048721X.2020.1754598
- Tsuria, R. (2018). From Sin to Sick – Digital Judaism and Pornography. Journal of Media and Religion 16(4).
- Tsuria, R., Yadlin-Segal, A., Vitullo, A., and Campbell, A. (May 2017). Approaches to Digital Methods in Studies of Digital Religion. The Communication Review, Vol. 20(2).
- Tsuria, R. (2016). Jewish Q&A Online and the Regulation of Sexuality: Using Foucault to read Technology. Social Media + Society, July-September 2016, Vol. 2(3).
- Tsuria, R. (2015). Islamophobia in Arab Online Media. CyberOrient, Vol. (9)1.
- Bellar, W, Campbell, H. A., Kyong Cho, J., Terry, A., Tsuria, R., Yadlin-Segal, A. and Ziemer, J. (2013). Reading Religion in Internet Memes. Journal of Religion, Media & Digital Culture, Vol. 2(2).
- Tsuria, R. (2013). Islamophobia and Polemics Online. Scripta Instituti Donneriani Aboensis Vol. 25, based on the Donner Institute conference on Digital Religion, Turku University, Finland.
Book Chapters
- Yoel, C. and Tsuria, R. (2019). A Match Made in the Clouds: Jews, Rabbis and Online Dating Sites. Book chapter in: Internet-Infused Romantic Interactions and Dating Practices. To be published by Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
- Tsuria, R. (2019). Conservative Judaism and Online Media. In: Augie Grant, Amanda Sturgill, & Chiung Hwang Chen (Eds.). Religion Online: How Digital Technology Is Changing the Way We Worship and Pray. USA: Praeger Press.
- Tsuria, R. & Campbell, H. (2018). Judaism in Israel. In: Kerstin Radde-Antweiler &
Xenia Zeiler (Eds.). Mediatized Religion in Asia - Studies on Digital Media and Religion.
UK: Routledge.
Invited Presentations
- The Future is Female? Religion, Bodies, and Digital Discourse. Step Back and Look Beyond: Studying Religion after 2020. Bochum, Germany, February 2020.
- Media, Power, and Sexuality, special plenary session in: Media Sociology - American Sociological Association Pre-Conference, Philadelphia, PA, August, 2018.
- Tomorrow's Woman in Diplomacy Using Tomorrow's Media and Information Technology, Center for United Nations and Global Governance Studies, organized by Seton Hall's School of Diplomacy and International Relations, New York, NY, March 2018.
Accomplishments
- 2020 - Digital Religion Research Award, the Network for New Media, Religion, and Digital Culture
- 2018 Emerging Scholar Award: Religion in Society
- 2017 Tiffany Hunnicutt Award, Outstanding Graduate Student Award
- 2017 STAR Award, Dissertation Writing Fellowship - College of Liberal Arts, Texas A&M University
- 2016 George Bush Foundation Graduate Student Travel Grant
- 2016 Dissertation Fellowship Award - Texas A&M Women and Gender Studies
- 2015 Top Graduate Paper Award - Communicating Diversity Student Conference
- 2014 The Association of Jewish Studies (AJS) Graduate Student Travel Grant
- 2012 Oticon Fonden, Graduate Student Award