Nassau Community College to Host Book Launch with Renowned 
Internet Scholar & Professor Gina Sipley, PhD

Event is sponsored by the English AA Program and the NCC Foundation
and book proceeds benefit The Children’s Greenhouse

October 8, 2024, Garden City, NY – A book launch for Just Here for the Comments: Lurking as Digital Literacy Practice (Bristol University Press, 2024) by Gina Sipley, PhD, a globally recognized Internet scholar and esteemed Nassau Community College Associate Professor of English and Creative Writing, will take place on Tuesday, October 22 at 10:00 a.m. in the Follet Bookstore on the Nassau Community College Campus. The event is sponsored by the English AA Program and the NCC Foundation; it will also be available on Zoom.   

In what promises to be a timely and thought-provoking event, Dr. Sipley will read selections from her book and explore the concept of Internet lurking, when you read posts on social media, but do not publicly comment, like, or share. Researchers confirm that 90 percent of Internet activity is lurking. Sipley argues that lurking drives the digital economy and that there are ways to be an ethical and responsible lurker. Most Internet research studies in medicine, psychology, education and the social sciences do not include lurkers in their data sets and the absence of lurkers means that these studies project potentially flawed findings.  

Through a fun pop culture analysis of lurker memes and a thorough investigation of the lurking practices of over 200 participants, Dr. Sipley will share information on the history and the future of Internet lurking. The talk will conclude with strategies for how to ethically engage in social media lurking.  

A resident of Glen Head, Dr. Sipley is the author of the book, Just Here for The Comments: Lurking As Digital Literacy Practice. Her research and essays on technology, education, and culture have been published in New Media + Society, Al Jazeera America, Newsday, London School of Economics Impact Blog, Mic, Slate, EdSurge and have been presented at international conferences such as AoIR, SXSW EDU, and MLA. As a poet, her work has appeared in New York Quarterly, The Paterson Literary Review and The Healing Muse, among others. She is Associate Professor of English and Creative Writing and affiliate faculty in the Women’s and Gender Studies Project at SUNY Nassau Community College where she serves as the English Program Coordinator and Vice Chair of the Creative Writing Program. 

Dr. Sipley is donating a portion of the proceeds from the sale of her books to The Children’s Greenhouse on the Nassau Community College Campus. The Children’s Greenhouse offers high-quality, low-cost childcare on a sliding scale, to the children of students, faculty, and staff. Children six weeks to seven years, inclusive of special needs, are welcome at the Greenhouse. Student parents, many of whom are first generation college students, who utilize the Greenhouse are more likely to persist in school and graduate. 

Event Details:

Date:  Tuesday, October 22
Time:  10:00am
Location: Follett Bookstore, Nassau Community College
Admission:  Free/Open to the Public
More information 

Ref: 2320.10/8/24.50

About Nassau Community College
Nassau Community College, a campus of the State University of New York, provides a comprehensive public college experience designed to transform lives through higher education. Serving 17,000 full-time, part-time and continuing education students, NCC offers more than 80 programs that lead to an associate’s degree or certificate. Through on-campus and online offerings, the College educates local and international students and boasts 163,000 alumni. Situated on 225 acres in Garden City, Long Island, the college grounds reside in historic Nassau County, one of the most desirable locations to live in the United States and an epicenter for business and careers. Since 1959, NCC has earned a nationwide reputation for academic excellence, affordability, and ease of transferability to four-year schools.