Biography
Giota’s interest in humanistic social computing stems from research on the influence of digital technologies have in producing paradigms, methods and genres that incentivise collective intelligence and community action. She has developed expertise on the historical and socio-cultural aspects of digital transformation, publishing widely in interdisciplinary domains in topics ranging from knowledge representation, data ethics and the platformization of culture/health to digital /creative cities and educational technologies.
Giota has co-led, and contributed to, a range of public engagement activities surrounding the co-design of civic technologies stemming from research projects projects funded by Hewlett and Gates Foundations, JISC, Higher Education Academy and, more recently, AHRC/EPSRC. Taking into account both critical technology studies and approaches to design justice, her work often turns towards participatory and digital methods to promote inclusive design values through socially engaged digital art and co-produced media projects.
Giota a visiting fellow in Collective Intelligence at the Open University’s Knowledge Media Institute (KMi), where she has been involved in projects relating to AI ethics in the fields of educational technology and in explainable AI /semantic media. She has previously held research and teaching positions at the Open University (Institute of Educational Technology, Department of Innovation and Centre for Governance and Citizenship) and at the Department of Media and Communications, London School of Economics and Political Science. Giota holds a PhD in Media & Cultural Studies from Sussex University, an MA in Media and Publishing Studies from Stirling University and BA in Classics, Philosophy and Linguistics.
Research interests and PhD supervision
- Mis/Dis-Information and Data Politics
- Digital /Data LiteraciesIntersections of Power, Epistemology & Semantic Media Civic Technologies
- Interplays of Digital and Creative Cities
- Education and Algorithmic Cultures
Selected publications
- Alevizou, G. ( 2023/forthcoming) The web of knowledge: Encyclopedias in the digital age. Cambridge: Polity.
- Alevizou, G. (2021) Civic Media and Technologies of Belonging: where digital citizenship and the ‘right to the city converge. International Journal of Media and Cultural Policy. https://doi.org/10.1386/macp_00029_1.
- Alevizou, G. (2020). ‘Civic Media & Placemaking: (Re)Claiming Urban & Migrant Rights Across Digital and Physical Spaces’. In: Smets, K.; Leurs, K.; Georgiou, M.; Witteborn, S. and Gajjala, R. eds. The SAGE Handbook of Media and Migration. SAGE.
- Alevizou, G. (2020). Virtual Schooling, COVID-Inequalities: Building Resilience and Digital Literacies for Uncertain Futures. Digital Culture & Education [ISSN: 1836-8301 - online].
- Alevizou, G. (2017). From digital commons to the data-fied urge: Theorising evolving trends in the intersections of digital culture and open education. First Monday, 22(6). DOI: https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v22i6.7806.
- Alevizou, G.; Alexiou, K.; Harte, D.; Sobers, S.; Zamenopoulos, T. and Turner, J. (2016). Civic cultures and modalities of place-making. In: Hargreaves, I. and Hartley, J. eds. The creative citizen unbound: How social media and DIY culture contribute to democracy, communities and the creative economy. Bristol: Policy Press, pp. 205–230.
Teaching
- Digital Culture and Society
- Digital CitiesInformation and Knowledge Systems Histories of Digital Media
- Digital and Participatory Methods
- Web technologies Digital Politics & Campaigning AI and Society ICTs for Development
Expertise and public engagement
- Former member of Tate Gallery’s Tate Exchange as part of the Who Are We programme, interrogating Identity, citizenship and Migration through socially engaged and digital art.
- Guest editor at Open Democracy.
- Former advisory member at Wikimedia Foundation Research Committee and programme chair of Wikimania and OpenSym.