I am a Lecturer in Sociology (Digital Media). I teach in and convene the Digital Society MSc.

My research addresses the social and political implications of digital technologies, with an emphasis on activism, social movements, and social justice. In general, my work explores how the ways in which people use and think about digital technologies play a role in their struggles for social justice.

I am currently working on a project on mutual aid activism in the Covid-19 pandemic, which is funded by a British Academy/Leverhulme Trust Small Research Grant. 

My PhD dissertation examined how contemporary leftist activist groups in Italy, Hungary and the United States constructed their own technological imaginaries to appropriate, negotiate or challenge Silicon Valley’s dominant techno-optimist ideas; my project highlighted the political and contested nature of the ideas we hold about technology, and their connection to social change. My PhD dissertation won the 2020 Dissertation Award from the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR). I have also developed a drawing-based research method, the visual focus group, through which I seek to facilitate conversations about the politics of technology and encourage civil society actors to imagine better digital technologies. My research been published in peer-reviewed journals, presented at major conferences, and has received awards and competitive funding.

I serve as Secretary of the Activism, Communication and Social Justice (ACSJ) Interest Group of the International Communication  Association (ICA).

Before joining the University of Glasgow, I was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Digital Studies Institute, University of Michigan (2020/2021) and at the Center on Digital Culture and Society at the University of Pennsylvania (2019/2020), where I remain a Research Affiliate. I gained my PhD in Communication at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania in 2019. I also hold a B.A. in International Studies from the University of Bologna (Italy) and an M.A. in Political Science, with a specialization in Political Communication, from Central European University (Budapest, Hungary).

For more information about my current and past work: www.elisabettaferrari.net

My research addresses the social and political implications of digital technologies, with an emphasis on activism, social movements, and social justice.

• social justice activism (contemporary and historical cases)
• digital activism
• social justice and digital technology
• technological imaginaries
• politics of digital technology
• history of technology & politics

List by: Type | Date

2022-2024 British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grant. Project: "Digital Mutual Aid: A comparative analysis of activism in the Covid-19 Pandemic in the United Kingdom, Italy and the United States"

I am interested in supervising projects in any of the following areas:

• activism and social movements
• digital activism
• activist media / media activism
• politics of digital technologies
• critical approaches to digital culture

2022/2023

Course Convenor: Digital Society Theory & Substantive Issues (PGT)

Lecturer: Digital Society: Digital Technology, Inequality and Culture (Hons)

2021/2022

Lecturer for MSc Digital Society: Digital Society Theory & Substantive Issues; Living Lab