About

I’m a media researcher with a focus on digital media and a background in social and cultural anthropology. My work has focused on social media’s influence on people’s experiences of spatial mobility, community formation, emotional care, and scientific knowledge communication. I’m interested in theories of (digital) mediation and methods for researching the role of social media platforms in society, especially in relation to power and how it operates in the relationship between technologies and their users. My work has earned me the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) Eary Career Award and various (NWO) research grants.

I’ve conducted ethnographic field research and used mixed methods to study digital media in the Netherlands, Turkey, the US, and Romania. Due to my work on disinformation and science communication on social media, I’m a member of the sector plan on Welfare, Participation, and Citizenship in a Digital World at Utrecht University, and due to my work on the relationship between sustainability and digital tech, I’m a co-leader of the Greening the Digital Society research group. I’ve previously worked as a Postdoctoral researcher on the ERC Consolidator project, ‘Digital Crossings in Europe: Gender, Diaspora and Belonging,‘ based at the Media and Culture Studies Department of Utrecht University. I then went on to work on a Horizon 2020 project on Trust in Expertise in a Changing Media Landscape, focusing on how contemporary media environments influence public trust in scientific expertise.

I received my PhD in Social and Cultural Anthropology in 2015 from the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, and my doctoral project formed the basis of my first book. It’s is an ethnographic investigation of how web usage practices shape belonging among second-generation Iranian Americans in Los Angeles. It engages with questions of collective memory, racialization, and transnational connections for this diaspora group.

Impact

My work currently  investigates how social media platforms shape public communication about scientific expertise around politically contested issues such as climate change and Covid-19. I’ve been invited to share my expertise on this topic at the EU level by the Alliance of European Academies of Science (ALLEA) and at the Dutch national level by the National Institute for Public Health and Environment (RIVM). My academic publications on this theme have been cited in multiple policy reports, including the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency.

Teaching

I’ve taught and supervised junior scholars at all academic levels across Humanities and Social Science fields at multiple institutions – from being an invited PhD workshop leader for the young scholars network of European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA) to coordinating and teaching in the Communication and Information Studies (CIW) BA Program at Utrecht University, for which I currently also sit on the Curriculum Committee. I’ve taught in Bachelors and Masters programs across disciplines in the humanities and social sciences at the University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam University College, Utrecht University, and Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam.

The content of this site only covers a period starting from March, 2016. For a complete list of publications and/or full CV please email me at d.alinejad @ uu.nl or get in touch via the Contact page of this website.