Dr Zeena Feldman

Biography

Zeena Feldman’s research investigates intersections between communication, technology and everyday life. Her work is interested in how digital technologies impact understandings and performances of traditionally analogue concepts – for instance, belonging, work, subjectivity, romance, conflict, self-care, mental health, cooking and eating. Her work also traces the birth and evolution of the contemporary sharing economy, and proposes the concepts of ‘passion-based social networking sites’ and ‘templatisation’ as theoretical frameworks for locating the power and limits of online participation. She currently runs the Quitting Social Media project, which explores digital overload and detox.

Zeena has published widely, including in Information, Communication & Society; Feminist Media Studies; Celebrity Studies; TripleC; Cultural Policy, Criticism & Management Research; and OpenDemocracy, and has appeared on BBC Radio 3 and 4. She is the editor of Art & the Politics of Visibility (IB Tauris, 2017), and co-editor with Deborah Lupton of Digital Food Cultures (Routledge, 2020). Her monograph, Belonging in the Sharing Economy, is due out next year.

Research Interests and PhD Supervision

• Digital detox / resisting digital culture
• The sharing economy
• Online communities
• Work in the digital economy
• The internet in everyday life
• Digital romance
• Belonging, cosmopolitanism and identity
• Digital food cultures

Zeena welcomes PhD applications related to the above, ideally from those interested in discourse analysis and/or ethnographic research.  

Teaching

Zeena Feldman teaches at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. She is interested in critical approaches to social media use and other digitally-mediated practices. 

Expertise and Public Engagement

Expertise:

• Social media and online communities
• The sharing economy (e.g. Uber, Airbnb, TaskRabbit)
• Work and labour in the digital economy
• Online dating and mobile romance apps
• Cyberbullying and online conflict
• Mental health and self-care apps
• Cosmopolitanism and identity
• Digital food cultures
• Digital detox

Recent media appearances:

• Late Night Woman’s Hour (2017), BBC Radio 4, ‘Work and Rest’ episode.
• Music Matters (2017) BBC Radio 3, ‘Music in the Time of Our Lives’ episode.

Projects:

• Quitting Social Media: Zeena leads this project, which explores how people negotiate the pleasures and pressures of today’s connectivity culture.  
• Internet Rights & Principles Coalition: The IRPC is a network based at the UN Internet Governance Forum (IGF). Zeena has worked with the IRPC for several years on the design and production of its Charter booklet series, currently available in 6 languages. More at http://internetrightsandprinciples.org/site/charter
• Global Internet Governance Academic Network: GigaNet is a global network of scholars working on issues of internet governance. Zeena led the network’s visual rebranding campaign in 2016-17. 

Zeena is a frequent speaker at conferences, workshops and other events around the world.