About Me

Hi! I am Junel, a postdoctoral fellow at Aarhus University School of Culture and Society, where I join a team of scholars who investigate the social life of crypto. My fellowship, funded by the Independent Research Fund Denmark, examines the lived experiences of individuals who are part of cryptocurrency communities from the Global South.
 

I am also a full-time faculty member (on special detail) at the University of the Philippines Diliman College of Media and Communication (UP CMC), where I teach undergraduate and graduate courses in communication research and communication theory. I have been named a UP Scientist since 2021.

Having earned a Ph.D. in Communication, my research interests look at the intersections of communication, technology, and society, gender and communication, and Filipino identities. I have contributed book chapters with Springer, Routledge, and the Ateneo de Manila Press, edited issues for the Plaridel Journal, and written chapters in an Anvil-awarded Communication Research primer. In addition, I have published articles and read conference papers in international, regional, and national journals over the past decade.

I sit as the Editor-in-Chief of the PCS Review (2021-present). I am also an associate editor of Plaridel Journal of Communication, Media, and Society, an editorial board member of the Korean Journal of Communication, and an incoming editorial board member of the Journal of Media Psychology.

I am active at the International Communication Association (ICA), serving as a member of the ICA-wide Applied/Public Policy Research Awards and the ICA-LGBTQ Studies Division’s Award Committee.

I have received two international awards in the last three years. I have co-authored the International Communication Association-LGBT Division’s Top Faculty Paper for "Situating Queerness in Filipino Experience: The Bakla, the Parlor, and the Paglaladlad,"  with Asst. Prof. John Mervin L. Embate (2024). I also won the Sheila Cunnison Prize for the Most Outstanding Publication for a co-authored publication with Prof. Augustus Ceasar Latosa for the article “Locked down queer love: intimate queer online relationships during the COVID-19 pandemic,” published in the Journal of Gender Studies in 2023.