About

I’m a media researcher with a focus on digital media and a background in anthropology. I’ve studied the role of social media usage in people’s experiences of spatial mobility, community-formation, emotional care, and scientific knowledge communication. I’ve conducted this research in multiple countries, paying special attention to how digital communications technologies become integrated into people’s everyday lives.

Currently, I’m investigating how social media platforms shape communication about scientific expertise around politically contested issues such as climate change and Covid-19.

A bit of background…

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 recent 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.

I’ve also 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’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.

Also, I sometimes tweet things @DonyaAlinejad