Matt Rafalow, Ph.D.

Matt Rafalow, Ph.D., is a sociologist and senior staff researcher at Google (YouTube), as well as a research fellow at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, where he co-directs the Annenberg Creator Research Network. He is the author of the award-winning Digital Divisions: How Schools Create Inequality in the Tech Era (2020) and co-author of Affinity Online: How Connection and Shared Interests Fuel Learning (2018). His research investigates digital inequality, youth culture, and creator-audience dynamics, with work published in the American Journal of Sociology, Educational Researcher, and Social Currents. He holds a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of California, Irvine (2016), and an MA in sociology and education from Columbia University’s Teachers College.