I am Associate Professor of the Sociology of New Media and
Digital Technology (2019+), as well as Deputy Head and Director of Education of
the School of Humanities and Social Sciences (2022+) and a Fellow of Queens’
College (2015+). Previously, I was a
Lecturer (2015-19) and an ESRC Future Research Leader Fellow (2013-16) in the
Department of Sociology and a Teaching Fellow at the LSE’s Department of Media
and Communication (2012-13).
The deepest knowledge and best ideas about how to do
wonderful scholarship and how to create the contexts that support it come from
the people doing this work. As a Council
member, I aim to act as a link between the problem-solving and innovations developed
by members of the Regent House, along with our broader community, and the
policy-making done in Council.
I am passionate about education (I won the Pilkington Prize
in 2022) and about the particular teaching, grounded in our research, that we
provide at Cambridge. I am also an
experienced researcher, and my tenure as co-Director of Cambridge’s Centre of
Governance and Human Rights (2017+) has provided me with an understanding of
the complexities of managing research institutions. My research expertise in the sociologies of
technology, knowledge and human rights is directly relevant to some of the
biggest challenges facing our University and higher education: the risks and
benefits of incorporating technology (most recently, generative AI) into our
scholarship, academic freedom and the culture wars, and persistent inequalities
such as in pay and attainment gaps.
As a member of Council, I work to support the Council’s
priority focus on student and staff workload.
I am aligned with colleagues’ views that our University’s ability to
contribute to environmental sustainability is linked to the sustainability of
our working conditions. I build on my
experience as co-lead of Cambridge’s End Everyday Racism activist research
project to advocate for initiative to improve equality and diversity at our
institution and beyond. I understand the
importance of allocating our resources towards our values and priorities.