I am Senior Research Fellow in Digital Local Democracy. My fellowship explores the interplay between technologies, democratic practices and social justice; it aims to design tools and participatory processes to democratise digital innovation with a particular concern for equity and civic participation in social digital innovations.
I am currently Principal Investigator for Not-Equal, the EPSRC Network+ on Social Justice through the Digital Economy (2018-2021). I am Co-Investigator for the H2020 Generative European Urban Commons, gE.CO (2019-2022) and a founding member of OLAthens.
My research interests include Participatory Design, and co-creation, service design, tools and place-based participatory processes to activate communities and to support political engagement with technology and broader social issues in and of place. I am currently involved in projects that explore HCI and food justice; HCI, place-making and youth activism; AI and sexual health online information seeking practices; trade unions in the digital era; the design of tools to support critical digital literacy.
Before starting the research fellowship, I was a post-doc at Open Lab working on the EPSRC funded MyPlace project. I obtained my PhD in Computing at Newcastle University. My thesis explored the role of technology and design to support forms of social activism in the everyday politics of place.
Before joining academia, I worked as a Socially Engaged Art practitioner on various initiatives and projects in the cultural sector. I have an MA in Curatorial practice and a BA in Arts & Design.