I am a researcher and educator interested in the intersections of media, globalization, and cultural difference. Currently, I am assistant professor in the Annenberg School for Communication and associate director of the Center for Advanced Research in Global Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. During 2023-2024, I was a fellow at the Institute for Advance Study in Princeton, NJ.
My first book Border Tunnels: A Media Theory of the U.S.-Mexico Underground (University of Minnesota Press, 2023) examines how representations of border tunnels in media such as TV news, video games, reality TV, and action films test our ideas about the shape and purpose of the borderlands. My second book is a short study of the musical legacy, new media popularity, and queer significance of the 2001 Mexican film Y Tu Mamá También, published in the “Queer Film Classics” series at McGill-Queen’s University Press. I also edited Media Travels: Toward an Atlas of Global Media (Amherst College Press, 2025), an open access collection with eleven chapters analyzing unknown and under-examined global media texts.
I am now working on two major projects: one focused on the use of interactive media by humanitarian organizations to discuss migration issues; and one focused on the politics of whiteness within new media platforms in Mexico.
Produced by Shawn Kornhauser at the Annenberg School for Communication.
My areas of expertise include global media, digital platforms, border and migration studies, infrastructure studies, and Latin American film and television.
I’m a regular graphic novel reader, Converse aficionado, and perpetual cheese lover.
juan llamas-rodriguez 