Lauren Tokos

Lauren Tokos’ research is focused on the history and political economy of academic publishing and knowledge production more generally. She is currently exploring the corporate infrastructure and policy frameworks constraining global access to information. 

Tokos is originally from Portland, Oregon, but spent much of her childhood in a small town on the Oregon Coast. As the child of two public servants, political discussions were central to her upbringing and shaped the lens through which she understands society. Tokos recently graduated cum laude from the University of Oregon’s Robert D. Clark Honors College, where she received a Bachelor of Arts in Media Studies, with a concentration in Media Structures and Regulation and a minor in Business Administration. 

During her time at Oregon, Tokos engaged in numerous forms of media research. As a research assistant in Oregon’s Esports and Games Research Lab, she analyzed athletes’ attitudes toward gaming platforms and assessed esports’ place within college athletics. Tokos later shifted her research interests toward media history, where she worked on numerous projects with media historian, Dr. Carol Stabile. As Dr. Stabile’s research assistant, Tokos helped create Fredi Washington: A Reader in Black Feminist Media Criticism, a digital humanities project cataloging Washington’s columns, “The People’s Voice” and “Fredi Says.” Additionally, Tokos worked as an editorial assistant on Dr. Stabile’s most recent book, The Ghost Reader: Recovering Women’s Contributions to Media Studies. Tokos is presently finishing a forthcoming article with Dr. Stabile and Miriam Yousaf (Columbia University, SIPA), titled “COMINFIL Radio-TV and the FBI’s War on Dissent,” which uses recently declassified FOIA documents to explore the FBI’s crusade against broadcast radicals. 

Beyond the aforementioned roles, Tokos created an independent research study examining peer-review’s role within the editorial apparatus at media studies and communication journals. The study analyzed various levels of ownership and control inherent to the industry, while gauging the efficacy of disparate peer-review methods on intended outcomes. While the scope of this investigation was specific to peer-review, the project yielded unforeseen results related to the outsourcing of editorial labor and other attempts by corporate publishers to promote profit over quality. 

At Annenberg, Tokos hopes to continue researching the intersection of history, political economy, and knowledge production. While inspired by critical scholars such as Jürgen Habermas, Herbert Marcuse, and Noam Chomsky, Tokos likewise refers to works by professional experts like Ben Bagdikian. 

In her free time, Tokos enjoys running, doing yoga, baking, and playing with her cat, Oliver.