Julia Ticona, assistant professor of communication at the Annenberg School for Communication, received a Facebook grant for her research project “Online Occupational Communities: Exploring Grassroots Economic Support for Workers in the Digital Age.” Dr. Ticona’s research investigates the ways that digital communication technologies shape the meaning and dignity of precarious work. She uses qualitative methods to examine the role of mobile phones, algorithmic labor platforms and data-intensive management systems in the construction of identity and inequality for low-wage workers.