Milan har arbeidet i en rekke land i Europa og kommer til IMK i april for å holde en gjesteforelesning. I september planlegger hun å arrangere en Phd-workshop ved instituttet. Når hun har fri fra jobb står gjerne fysisk aktivitet i fokus, og hun trener jevnlig boksing, danser argentinsk tango og elsker å gå på ski og klatre. Stefania Milan presenterer seg selv på engelsk:
Innovation on the fringes
Buongiorno! My name is Stefania Milan. An Italian national, I have been living in the Netherlands since 2012, where I am an assistant professor of new media and digital culture at the University of Amsterdam. My work explores the intersection of digital technology, activism and governance. Most of my time is devoted to DATACTIVE (ERC Starting Grant 639379), a five-year research project exploring the evolution of citizenship and participation in the age of big data (data-activism.net ). I also contribute to teaching and supervision in the areas of digital activism and digital methods. I am currently working on a new manuscript exploring how algorithms change the dynamics of organized collective action and contemporary protest.
My background
I am fascinated by sociotechnical innovation on the fringes, where users, ordinary citizens, hackers and activists experiment and learn, and engage in appropriation and subversion. I have researched cultures of technology design and adoption (e.g., self-organized computer infrastructure), media production practices at the grassroots (e.g., low power radio), and the interplay between technology and collective action (e.g., hacking, hacktivism, “cloud protesting”, bottom-up participation in the governance of cyberspace).
I hold a MA in Communication Sciences from the University of Padova, Italy, and a PhD in Political and Social Sciences of the European University Institute. I have intermittently practiced print, radio and web journalism for about a decade—till today I remain a proud member of the UK National Union of Journalists. Prior to joining the University of Amsterdam, I worked at the University of Luzern (Switzerland), the Robert Schuman Center for Advanced Studies (Italy), Central European University (Hungary), the Citizen Lab/Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto (Canada), and Tilburg University (The Netherlands). Among others, I am the author of Social Movements and Their Technologies: Wiring Social Change (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013/2016) and co-author of Media/Society (Sage, 2011).
The politics of big data according to civil society
The DATACTIVE team is particularly international and interdisciplinary, with expertise ranging from Science and Technology Studies to sociology, from philosophy to human computer interaction and security studies. It includes two postdocs, four PhD students, and three research assistants and interns. We investigate citizens’ engagement with datafication and massive data collection, which we subsume under the label of “data activism”. We distinguish between “proactive data activism”, that is to say sociotechnical practices of affirmative engagement with data and their creation, and “reactive data activism”, or forms of resistance and subversion to massive data collection. In addition, we keep ourselves busy with methodological innovation, experimenting with computational methods for, e.g., the analysis of online collaborative communities on mailing lists and the code repository GitHub. We are particularly concerned with research ethics at the time of the so-called “big data”. As part of this program, DATACTIVE adopts an “engaged” approach to research, by virtue of which we interrogate the impact that our empirical inquiry might have on people and communities, and seeks to empower the very same communities we study. Put it differently, DATACTIVE seeks to do research also “with” instead of merely “about”, thus entering into a continuous dialogue with the activists we observe.
Between research and action
I enjoy creating bridges between research and policymaking, and I often speak to and consult with governments and non-profit organizations. I represent noncommercial internet users in the Council of the Generic Names Supporting Organization of the International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). In this role, I contribute to policymaking in the realm of top-level domain names such as .com, .net, .hotel. I am a member of the Working Group “An Internet Free and Secure” of the Freedom Online Coalition, a partnership of 30 governments working to advance Internet freedom. As a consultant, I have worked for, e.g., the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research, and the European Commission.
At IMK
I am very excited to join the Department of Media Studies at the University of Oslo. I am looking forward to contribute to teaching and supervision, if so desired, in the areas of social innovation, media and politics, social media, and anything data and datafication. On April 20-21 I will visit the Department for the first tiem, to offer a guest lecture on activism and individual/collective identity as it is mediated by social media within the course “Internet, Self and Society” by Steffen Krueger. For September 2017 I am planning a PhD workshop on data-related innovation. But most importantly, I believe in collective thinking and I love swapping thoughts and planning exciting activities and co-authorships with colleagues. Please get in touch at stefania.milan@media.uio.no.
… and the guilty pleasures!
There is something about me that you won’t find on my curriculum vitae. I love the outdoors, sport, mountains and bikes. I regularly practice boxing, road cycling, and Argentinean tango; when I am lucky enough to have mountains nearby I enjoy hiking, skiing, and some climbing too. I am a licensed swimming instructor and lifeguard. I played in the 5-side football team of my alma mater. I like travelling, reading and writing, a bit of coding, and cooking. And I am known to speak and think at the speed of light—and forget most of it five minutes later. More at stefaniamilan.net!