Ryan Eanes is Assistant Professor of Communication Studies at TUJ Kyoto, where he teaches undergraduate courses in communication and advertising, as well as courses in the MS in Communication Management program. His research examines the intersection of advertising, consumer culture, and sustainability, a focus that crystallized around questions of degrowth and communication after years of exploring consumer behavior from phenomenological angles.

Before moving to Kyoto, Eanes spent six years as Assistant Professor of Instruction in the Department of Advertising and Public Relations at Temple's Klein College of Media and Communication in Philadelphia. While there, he developed and taught courses including Psychology of Advertising, whose experiential approach took its most notable form in visits to Temple's Katz School of Medicine, where students handled human brain specimens and confronted how decisively neuroscience is reshaping the field.

His book, Insightful Branding: People-Centric Tactics for Building Brands, was published by Kendall Hunt in 2023 and continues to be used as a textbook for gateway courses in brand development and research.

Prior to joining the academy, Eanes spent nearly a decade in New York City as a producer at Bill Me, Inc., where his work spanned UX design, brand management, and marketing research. He earned his Ph.D. in Media Studies from the University of Oregon (2015), his M.A. in Media Studies from The New School (2008), and his B.A. in Communication and Digital Art from Wake Forest University (2003).

Eanes lives in Kyoto with Bin, his not-quite-loyal black-and-tan Shiba Inu.

Research

• The degrowth movement and its relationship with, and effects on, advertising, marketing, corporate communications, and consumer-brand relationships and consumption activities
• Consumer-brand relationships, anti-brand communities and “brand hate”
• Consumption activities related to self-presentation, impression management & self-monitoring
• Consumer neuroscience

Representative Publications

• Eanes, R. (Forthcoming). The persuasion paradox: AI, advertising, and the undermining of sustainable development. In Yusha’u, M. J. & Martin Lengel, L. (Eds.), Communication for development: Rethinking sustainable communication in the AI century. Wiley-Blackwell.
• Eanes, R. (2023). Insightful branding: People-centric tactics for building brands. Kendall Hunt.
• Eanes, R. S., & van den Broek, C. Y. (2019). Playing alone, together: Pokémon GO, public mobility, and locational privacy. In Henthorn, J., Kulak, A., Purzycki, K., & Vie, S. (Eds.), The Pokémon GO phenomenon: Essays on public play in contested spaces (pp. 32-48). McFarland.
• Eanes, R. S. (2017). The omnipresent opiate: Reconsidering Internet addiction in the network era. In P. Rose (Ed.), Confronting Technopoly: Charting a course towards human survival (pp. 33-52). Intellect Books.
• Pittman, M., & Eanes, R. S. (2015). So many choices, so little choice: Streaming media, algorithmic efficiency, and the illusion of control. In R. C. MacDougall (Ed.), Communication and control: Tools, systems, and new dimensions (pp. 133-145). Lexington Books.

Education

• PhD (2015), University of Oregon
• MA (2008), The New School
• BA (2003), Wake Forest University

Previous Appointments

• 2019-2025: Assistant Professor of Instruction, Department of Advertising & Public Relations, Klein College of Media & Communication, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA
• 2015-2019: Assistant Professor, Department of Business Management, Washington College, Chestertown, MD

Professional Associations

• Media Ecology Association
• Association for Consumer Research