Mackenzie Marquess

Mackenzie Marquess is a doctoral candidate with a concentration in political communication and rhetoric at the University of Kansas. She earned her M.A. from the University of Texas at Tyler where her thesis examined how political commentary following presidential debates framed femininity in relation to the concept of electability. Her current work focuses on how political discussion unfolds on emerging social media platforms like TikTok and Twitch due to their unique affordances and audiences. She is especially interested in the construction of social norms surrounding political discussion in apolitical online spaces. In addition to this, her work explores the activation and maintenance of social movements in the United States, focusing on movements related to women’s healthcare and abortion. Mackenzie specializes in qualitative and rhetorical methods and much of her current work is comprised of case studies and ethnographic fieldwork.

Areas of Specialization: Political communication, political information diffusion, the construction of social norms on social media, and social movement activation