JILL WALSH IS A RESEARCHER AND LECTURER AT BOSTON UNIVERSITY.

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She obtained a PhD in Sociology from Boston University in 2014, and earlier earned a Masters in Public Policy from Brown University and a B.A from Harvard University. Prior to completing her graduate coursework, she taught, coached, and mentored high school students at the Noble and Greenough School for five years.

Her recent work examines the way that social media, and the need to document the self online, has altered the paths to adolescent development. Her dissertation entitled The Highlight Reel and Real Me: How Adolescents Construct the Facebook Fable, is a multi-method study arguing that Facebook has become a public space where adolescents engage in self-reflection and dialogue.

This work has been developed into a book, “Adolescence and Their Social Media Narratives: A Digital Coming of Age”, published in 2017 by Routledge. She currently teaches undergraduate and graduate levels courses on the intersection between society and technology, with an emphasis on the millennial generation.

She was a member of a research team on a two year grant commissioned by schools to examine the relationship between high achieving students and stress. She was brought into this project as the technology and adolescent expert to study the role that technology plays in the stress processes. This work is beginning again as the research team is commencing a longitudinal study examining mentors’ ability to foster purpose in teens as a buffer to stress.

SHE HAS PRESENTED HER RESEARCH AT NATIONAL CONFERENCES AND HAS BEEN AWARDED A VARIETY OF GRANTS TO SUPPORT HER WORK.

Her interests include adolescent development, social media, health and gender. She is currently completing two books in the area of young people’s mediated social relationships.