Hilde Stephansen

Background

About Hilde Stephansen

I am a political- and media sociologist whose research is concerned with the relationship between media, democracy, and political participation. I am particularly interested in the changing nature of contemporary public spheres and new opportunities and challenges for democratic participation linked to the rise of digital networked technologies. With a particular focus on citizen media, media activism and social movements, I approach the study of digital technologies from a critical, socially grounded perspective that takes media practices as a starting point and understands these as embedded within wider social practices and relationships. Running through the different strands of my work is an interest in how media and communication practices can contribute to the formation of publics at different scales, and how such publics can facilitate broader social processes of knowledge production. I am the co-editor (with Emiliano Trere) of Citizen Media and Practice: Currents, Connections, Critiques (2019, Routledge) and I am currently writing a book called Global Media Activism (Routledge, forthcoming). I have been teaching in Higher Education since 2009 and currently teach across a number of areas in sociology and politics, with a particular focus on research methods, social theory, media and social movements. I was the recipient of an individual Teaching Excellence Award from the University of Westminster in 2018. I am currently an Academic Professional Development Fellow in the University of Westminster's Centre for Education and Teaching Innovation (CETI). I have been a Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy since 2012.