Dr. Rachael Kent is a leading researcher, author, consultant, podcast host, and Senior Lecturer in Digital Economy and Society at King’s College London, where her research examines the impact of digital technology on mental and physical health.

Expertise and Public Engagement

Consultancy

Dr. Kent is the founder of tech-wellbeing consultancy Dr. Digital Health, providing evidence-based research and strategy for businesses and employees on managing tech saturation, and how tech ‘addiction’ impacts mental and physical health in everyday professional and personal life. Some of Dr. Kent’s clients include the NHS, the UK Government, Vivo Barefoot, Paramount, and CBS.

Dr. Rachael Kent v. Apple

Dr. Kent is the first female class representative in UK legal history, leading a collective action against Apple on behalf of 19.6 million UK consumers, alleging they have breached competition law and overcharged for app purchases, seeking £1.5bn in compensation.

See: Competiton Appeal Tribunal | Press & Interviews Here

Podcast

Dr. Kent is the host of 'Digital Health Diagnosed: Your Dose of Tech Wellbeing' produced by Mic'd Productions, the first evidence-based podcast diagnosing how technology impacts your health. Digital Health Diagnosed has been featured on ITV News and has high-profile expert guests such as Ben West, Sophie Medlin, and Made in Chelsea's Miles Nazaire.

Publications & Press

Dr. Kent’s first book ‘The Digital Health Self-Wellness, Self-Tracking, and Social Media’ was published in May 2023 by Bristol University Press. Dr. Kent's research regularly appears in press and podcasts including BBC News, Forbes Magazine,  Runners World, BrainCare Metro UK, Heat Magazine, Women and Home Magazine, The Daily Mail, The Independent, MixMag Health and Wellbeing Magazine, and Glamour Magazine.

Research Interests and PhD Supervision

• COVID-19 and digital behaviours
• Digital health and food cultures
• Technology 'addiction' and digital detoxing
• Quantified-self and self-tracking
• Datafication and surveillanceIdentity and mediated bodies
• Social media and (self-) representation
• Ethnography and qualitative research methods

Teaching

Dr. Kent teaches at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels on many areas of digital culture and society: AI and machine learning, social media, identity and representation, online communities, digital health, self-tracking, surveillance, and the medical humanities.

Selected Publications

(Coming – 2024) '(In) Visibility of health and illness: Instagram as an unregulated public health platform', Journal of Anthropology & Medicine.

(2023) ‘The Digital Health Self: Wellness, Tracking and Social Media’. Bristol University Press.

(2023) Frey AL, Baines R, Hunt S, Kent R, Andrews T, Leigh S 'Association Between the Characteristics of mHealth Apps and User Input During Development and Testing: Secondary Analysis of App Assessment Data'. JMIR Mhealth Uhealth;11:e46937, doi: 10.2196/46937.

(2022) ‘From the Welfare State to Digital Self-Care: Historical Context of Tracking Health and Quantifying Bodies’. In (Ed) Ajana, Btihaj. The Quantification of Bodies in Health. Emerald.

(2022) Tutorful Reports: How to Improve Learning Using Digital Technology, Chapter 6.

Kent, R. (2021) 'Digital Food Tracking: Combining Traditional and Digital Ethnographic Methods to Identify the Influence of Social Media Sharing of Health and Food Upon Users’ Everyday Lives' In Krogager, S, G, Stinne. and Leer, Jonatan. (eds) Research Methods in Digital Food Studies. Routledge.

Kent, R. (2020) ‘Self-Tracking Health Over Time: From the Use of Instagram to Perform Optimal Health to the Protective Shield of the Digital Detox’, Social Media +Society Special Issue: Studying Instagram Beyond Selfies.

Kent, R. (2020) Self-Tracking and Digital Food Cultures: Surveillance and Representation of the Moral ‘Healthy’ Body. In Lupton, Deborah and Feldman, Zeena. (eds.) Digital Food Cultures. Routledge.Kent, R. (2018) Social Media and Self-Tracking: Representing the ‘Health Self'. In: Ajana B. (eds) Self-Tracking. Palgrave Macmillan: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65379-2_5