About me

Hi! I’m Will Marler, a researcher and educator focused on inequality and inclusion in the digital age.

I am an assistant professor with tenure in the Department of Communication and Cognition at Tilburg University in The Netherlands.

I obtained my PhD in Media, Technology, and Society from Northwestern University in 2020 and completed a post-doc in the Department of Communication and Media Research (IKMZ) at the University of Zurich from 2020-2022. I also have an MA in Islamic and Near Eastern Studies from Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL).

My most recent project (with Dr. İrem Bezcioğlu-Göktolga) explores the “digital integration” of refugees into the Netherlands, focused on ways that people forced to flee from their home countries adapt digital technologies to feel at home and develop a sense of belonging in Dutch society. The project is in collaboration Refugee Team and is funded by a grant for the Digital Sciences for Society program at Tilburg University.

Previously, my ethnography of homelessness and digital inequality won the Top Dissertation Award in 2021 from the Mobile Communication Division of the International Communication Association (ICA) and a Graduate Dissertation Award from the Department of Communication Studies at Northwestern University in the area of Interpersonal Communication.

My studies on digital inequality are published in leading journals in the area of communication and technology, including New Media & Society, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, and Mobile Media & Communication. I am a regular presenter annual conferences of the International Communication Association (ICA), Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR), and TPRC, an annual telecommunications policy conference in Washington, D.C., where I received a Top Student Paper Award in 2019. Check out my CV through the tab above, for more.

As a researcher and instructor, I am focused on how inequalities emerge, sustain, and can be overcome in the digital age. I combine community-based, ethnographic research and surveys to explore the impacts of digital changes on marginalized communities, with interests in older adults, homelessness, and refugees. With international experience in education and media including a former Fulbright Fellowship to Turkey, and academic positions in Switzerland and The Netherlands, I am globally minded as well as locally engaged in my research. For more details on my experience and approach, please check out my “Research and Teaching” tab.

If you are a researcher or practitioner interested in working with me around issues of digital inequality and inclusion, contact me at b.w.m.marler[at]tilburguniversity.edu, or on LinkedIn.