I am an Associate Professor in Media and Global Development.

My teaching and research interests lie at the intersection of humanitarian communication, political sociology, and critical border studies. 

There are two strands to my current research:

The first project is concerned with the politics of grassroots humanitarianism, migrant solidarity and border violence in Europe through ethnographic research in and around refugee camps in Greece:

How have grassroots volunteers transformed the humanitarian landscape through everyday practices of care and solidarity? How do migrants exercise their political agency through everyday acts of resistance to contest the logic and language of their confinement?

The second strand of research focuses on the politics of transparency in EU migration management and the use of Freedom of Information (FOI) mechanisms as a research methodology for probing institutional deliberation and policy-making processes that often result in social harms. 

Through collaborations with Lighthouse Reports - a non-profit organisation that leads public interest journalistic investigations - I have contributed to investigations for Der Spiegel, The Guardian, Le Monde, and Balkan Insight on mass surveillance and migration governance across Europe.

Previously, my doctoral research explored the role of the news media in the global politics of HIV/AIDS and the campaign for access to life-saving medicines in the Global South.

I teach on a range of undergraduate and postgraduate modules, in areas including humanitarian communication, media and democracy, and media framing of social movements. I co-direct (with Dr Martin Scott) the BA Global Development with Media.

Before joining UEA, I was Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Bath (2013-2015) and I also taught at Maastricht University in the Netherlands.

• 2014 - PhD in Sociology, University of Strathclyde
• 2007 - MA in European Studies (cum laude), Maastricht University
• 2006 - BA in European Studies, Maastricht University

I am the programme co-director (with Dr Martin Scott) of the BA Global Development with Media. I currently teach on the following modules:

Undergraduate

• Humanitarian Communication (Convenor)
• Media, Communication and Social Change
• Migration and Development
• Wars and Humanitarian Crises 

Postgraduate

• Media, Communication and Development 
• Media, Democracy and Social Change 

I am currently co-supervising several PhD projects:

Sofia Miranda (Mediated discourses of capitalism in Chile)

Kang Yan (Chinese literary journalism) 

Connie Hodgkinson Lahiff (UK asylum management)