About

I’m a media researcher with a background in anthropology, and my work focuses on the relationship between digital media and social processes. So far, I’ve studied the role of social media in people’s experiences of spatial mobility, community-formation, emotional care, and expert knowledge communication. I’ve conducted research in multiple countries on how people use digital communications technologies as part of their everyday lives. I’m currently working on how social media shapes 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 for my recent book. The book 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 focusing on how the contemporary media landscape influences public trust in scientific expertise.

I’ve also taught in Bachelors and Masters programs across disciplines in the humanities and social sciences at the University of Amsterdam, Utrecht University, and Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam.

The content of this site only covers a period starting March, 2016. For a complete list of publications and/or full CV please email me at d.alinejad @ gmail.com.

I sometimes tweet things @DonyaAlinejad