Brady Robards is an Associate Professor in Sociology at Monash University in the School of Social Sciences. Prior to this Brady was Associate Lecturer at Griffith University, and Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Tasmania. His research explores how young people use and produce digital social media, such as Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, Snapchat, and Reddit. Brady's current projects include:

• Social Media & Employment: Brady is currently working on a three year Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) project on social media and employment. This project aims to investigate how a) young people present professional identities on social media when preparing for employment, and b) how employers use social media in recruitment.
• Growing up on Facebook: With Sian Lincoln, since 2014 Brady has been studying sustained or longitudinal social media use among people in their 20s who have grown up using social media. Brady and Sian developed the 'social media scroll back' method to examine longitudinal digital traces inscribed on social media through regular use over years, where researchers can work with research participants as co-analysts of their own digital traces.
• Scrolling Beyond Binaries: With Brendan Churchill, Paul Byron, Son Vivienne, and Benjamin Hanckel, since 2016 Brady has been studying social media use among LGBTIQ+ young people. This project employed mixed-methods, including a survey conducted in 2016 and interviews conducted in 2017. Key findings cover the ways in which different platforms are used to manage different audiences and networks, and how networked publics operate to build a sense of connection, community, and facilitate learning among queer and gender-diverse young people.
• Young People's Experiences of Australian Public Services: On behalf of the Australian Public Service and with Steven Roberts, Jo Lindsay, Barbara Barbosa Neves, Zareh Ghazarian, Jonathan Smith, Jacqueline Laughland-Booy, and Verity Trott. This study aims to understand young people’s experiences and perceptions of Australian public services and how young people connect with them at different times in their lives.
• Social Media & Unhealthy Marketing: We have partnered with VicHealth to study how marketing of products like alcohol, fast food, sugary drinks, and gambling are advertised to young people via social media. This project is with Nic Carah (UQ), Amy Dobson (Curtin), Karla Elliott, Claire Tanner, Steven Roberts, Michael Savic, and Chiara De Lazzari. We are taking a citizen science approach, recruiting young people to take screenshots of the advertising they see, collect them for us, and discuss them with us as part of our analysis.

Brady is a member of the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR) and The Australian Sociological Association (TASA).

With Akane Kanai, Brady is also the co-convenor of the Monash Digital Cultures Research Group.

Brady supervises research projects in a range of areas, primarily in the sociology of youth and in the study of digital cultures. Current projects include research on gendered social media use, LGBTQIA+ young people's social media use, digitally mediated ideological subcultures, smartphone use, and migrant social media use.

Profile photo by T.J. Thomson.

• Social media (long-term use, memory, and impact on employment)
• Youth culture and internet cultures
• Gender and sexuality
• Digital research methods and ethics