about me
I am a researcher with over a decade of experience conducting in-depth qualitative and mixed methods research in the global south as both an academic and practitioner. I am passionate about studying how rapid advances in communication technologies are changing non-western societies, and how their socio-economic contexts in turn shape the technologies created.
I thrive in interdisciplinary and applied research environments. My PhD is in communications, my doctoral research method is anthropological, and my Postdoc was in law. With six years spent working in communications and monitoring and evaluation for media and human rights NGOs prior to my PhD, and applied work with humanitarian organizations and technology companies following my PhD, I specialize in turning research insights into actionable practitioner and policymaker recommendations.
While I am adept at translating my research skills to diverse environments, I have particularly extensive experience living and conducting research in Kenya, a country that I have been engaged with since my first year spent working with a Kenyan journalists’ right NGO, the Media Institute, back in 2007, and where I conducted 16 months a fieldwork for my doctoral research.
I was the ConflictNET Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Oxford University’s Programme in Comparative Media Law & Policy studying efforts to extend internet access into conflict-prone regions in East Africa. I have a PhD from the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania, where I was advised by Dr John L. Jackson Jr, the Dean of the Annenberg School. I hold an MA in Political Science from NYU, and a BSc in Politics and Economics from the University of Bristol.
Photograph (c) Alex Dyzenhaus 2016