Jermaine Anthony Richards is a critical/cultural communication and media scholar, a Paul and Daisy Soros Fellow, and a PhD candidate at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. He studies how institutions, organizations, and networks process dynamic media objects made to obtain social “development,” “impact,” and “change.” His dissertation – advised by Robeson Taj Frazier (Chair), Zakiyyah Iman Jackson (Duke), Henry Guy Jenkins III, and TreaAndrea M. Russworm – examines social impact games, gamification, and game-based learning via comparative case and conjunctural methods.
Richards holds graduate degrees from the London School of Economics and Political Science (MSc in Global Media, Advertising Club of New York Presidential Scholar) and the University of Southern California (MA in Global Communication and MA in Communication, LSE-USC Global Media and Communications Research Associate Scholar). He earned his BS in Communications Technology (Digital Systems Engineering) and Studio Art as an AD Club Innovation, Advertising, and Media Scholar at York College, The City University of New York.
Richards is currently the Senior Producer and Research Manager at USC Games' Radical Play Lab, led by TreaAndrea M. Russworm. At RPL, he leads research on the UI/UX design and analysis of global impact games and gaming technologies; develops critical educational frameworks for K-12 and undergraduate game-based learning; supports the production of student-led indie games; and develops, manages, and co-leads strategic industry media and entertainment partnerships.
After beginning his career in marketing, advertising, and branded entertainment at 13 years old on New York City’s Madison Avenue, Richards ascended to production roles at Wieden+Kennedy. There, he led production and designed the user interface and experience for the computer and arcade game, Momo Pixel's Hair Nah: A Travel Game About a Black Woman Tired of People Touching Her Hair, which critiques racialized boundary invasion. Hair Nah has exhibited at the Smithsonian, Tate Modern, and the V&A; featured in Vogue and The New York Times; appears in multiple peer-reviewed articles and over 15 books across academic fields; and is taught at 50+ universities around the world – including Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Chicago, Northwestern – for its critical acclaim and contributions to cultural and educational movements surrounding the CROWN Act. Richards later freelanced in London, Paris, and Tokyo, producing critical games, XR, video, and installations.
As a strategist, Richards served as a New America DIGI Fellow. He led a landscape analysis on digital transformation strategy in Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, Myanmar/Burma, and Viet Nam, supported by Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Previous work focused on Indonesian government protests, post-humanitarian crises of debt accumulation in Small Island Developing States, and South-South development frameworks between Southeast Asia and CARICOM.
He also worked as a DIGI Associate in public finance, focusing on Sovereign Wealth Funds, at the Responsible Asset Allocator Initiative (RAAI), which mobilized capital from the world’s largest institutions toward responsible investing aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The RAAI Index offered the first comprehensive analysis of how the world’s largest long-term investors are developing strategies to manage environmental, social, and cyber governance crises.
Jermaine consults and publicly writes on the communication, media, advertising, and public relations industries; media, communication, and technology policy; and critical and counter-extremist games, gamification, and simulation. His public writing has appeared in The Advertising Age, Opinion Pages, and Fair Observer.