Bio

I am a postdoctoral fellow at the  Oxford Internet Institute, where I study digital activism, and international examples of telecommunications in the public interest.  I grew up in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada – a university and government city looking out onto the plains of the high prairies. The wide horizons inspired adventure, and I moved across the country to study in the Arts and Science Program at McMaster University.

After completing my bachelor’s degree, I made a brief foray into the television industry. I then moved to Toronto to undertake a Master’s degree in Communication and Culture at York University and Ryerson University. Curiosity inspired my thesis work: an ethnography of an internet café.

Still curious about the role of technology in the places and spaces of cities, I moved to Montreal for a PhD in Communication Studies at Concordia University, and began working with members of Île Sans Fil, a grassroots community WiFi group. I followed the community WiFi movement as it nourished the boom in municipal WiFi projects in North America, and influenced discourses and practices of media reform.

After working at ENST in France, I followed my heart to the UK. I currently hold a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Oxford Internet Institute. My research expands from my PhD thesis to discuss digital activism and the politicization of technology. I argue that there are various forms of “policy hacking” that may create alternative institutions, or help to route around the damage to existing institutions, including media, software, and hardware.

I was a member of the Canadian Research Alliance for Community Innovation and Networking, the Community Wireless Infrastructure Research Project, and the Ethos Group. I am committed to undertaking empirical social research that helps to develop communication and information policy in the public good.

In my spare time, I have been known to build interactive art projects, perform on the trapeze, tend my garden, and row on the Thames. I divide my time between London and Oxford, with frequent pilgrimages to Montreal.