I am an Associate Professor in Media and International Development.

My teaching and research interests lie at the intersection of humanitarian communication, political sociology, and digital migration 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 in refugee camps? How do refugees exercise their political agency through everyday acts of resistance within camps and digital media spaces to contest the logic and language of their confinement?

The second strand of research focuses on the politics of transparency in EU governance and the use of Freedom of Information (FOI) requests as a unique research methodology to pry open the 'black box' of institutional deliberation and policy-making processes that often result in social harms. 

Through collaborations with Lighthouse Reports - a non-profit organisation that leads in-depth cross-border journalistic investigations - I have contributed to investigations for Der Spiegel, The Guardian, and Balkan Insight on mass surveillance and migration management 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 Media and International Development.

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 Media and International Development. I currently teach on the following modules:

Undergraduate

• Humanitarian Communication (Convenor)
• Wars and Humanitarian Crises
• Communication for Development
• Migration and Development

Postgraduate

• Media and International Development
• Global Media Studies

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)