Call for Expressions of Interest - Digital Ethnography for Public Engagement

Date: 28 October 2024, 12:00 - 17:00
Location: Drift 21, Utrecht University (central campus)
Deadline: 30 September 2024

Digital ethnography is a research approach that helps us understand how people use and make sense of digital technologies. Ethnographic methods value immersive and exploratory inquiry in naturalistic settings, thus revealing rich insights and perspectives that are inaccessible through other methods and research techniques (such as surveys, content analysis, and data mining). How can digital ethnographic approaches serve publicly engaged research on the digital society?

We invite you to participate in a day of exchange and reflection about the ways digital ethnography can be used in research that is oriented towards public engagement and societal impact.

In this one-day symposium, we aim to bring together academic researchers from across universities and disciplines who have experience and/or affinity with ethnographic research methods for researching digital technologies and their societal influences. The goal is to spark conversation and brainstorm solutions to some of the challenges we face when pursuing participatory research, public engagement, and societally relevant and collaborative scholarly inquiry in an increasingly digitally oriented world.

What are the practical obstacles, ethical challenges, and conceptual tensions we grapple with when seeking to align our research with the needs and concerns of societal partners? How can our work meaningfully engage with civil society actors, ranging from NGO practitioners, journalists, civil servants, marginalized communities, activists, artists, and policymakers? These are some of the questions we will workshop together in breakout discussions.

The day will be kicked off by a Keynote Talk by Prof. Annette Markham, who holds a Chair in Future Data Literacies and Public Engagement at Utrecht University’s Media and Culture Studies Department. The breakout workshop sessions will be followed by a roundtable discussion involving experts in publicly engaged digital ethnographic methods. We will close the day with drinks and informal networking.

Expression of interest

The number of places is limited, so if you are interested in participating, please fill out this online form by September 30th , 2024. The details you submit will help inform the content of the program. We welcome participation from all levels of academia, including PhD researchers and temporary lecturers.

This symposium is organized with the support of the Digital Society framework of the National Research Agenda and the RMeS Research School for Media Studies. If you have questions, please contact the RMeS (rmes rug.nl).