TikTok Cultures Research Network


The TikTok Cultures Research Network is a research portal founded in October 2020 by Professor Crystal Abidin and a group of Asia Pacific-based interdisciplinary scholars who are studying TikTok cultures from a variety of qualitative research methodologies. We provide and facilitate the production of scholarly resources, research projects, and events that connect networks of qualitative scholars of various disciplines from around the world.

Our ethos is rooted in providing opportunities to junior, under-represented, and under-privileged scholars; in committing to a decolonial perspective that prioritises research from and by the margins/marginalized in the Asia Pacific and Global South; and in fostering meaningful and impactful collaboration and networking opportunities that will result in innovative research perspectives.

The TikTok Cultures Research Network has edited three Special Issue Journals:  “Research Perspectives on TikTok & Its Legacy Apps” in International Journal of Communication; “Cultures of TikTok in the Asia Pacific” in Media International Australia; and “TikTok and Social Movements” in Social Media + Society.

We regularly hold events with leading scholars, and our seventh virtual event TikTok & Children was held on the 8th of May 2023. Our eighth virtual event TikTok Creators & Digital Economies will be our first satellite event, hosted in the UK on 6 October 2023. Recordings of our previous events are available to watch here.

If you are interested in joining the TikTok Cultures Research Network we invite you to submit an expression of interest via our online form available here.

The TikTok Cultures Research Network is currently supported by the Australian Research Council (DE190100789) and Professor Crystal Abidin’s Strategic Research Funds from Curtin University.

The TikTok Cultures Research Network has previously been supported by funding from various projects, including the MCASI Creative-Critical Imaginations Seed Fund at Curtin University, Strategic Investment Funding from Faculty of Humanities at Curtin University, Professor Michael Keane, the Australian Research Council (DP170102176), and the Social Science Research Council (Rapid-Response Grants on Covid-19 and the Social Sciences).