Dr Adi Kuntsman

I have always been fascinated by the relations between politics and on-line communication. 20 years ago I began researching how people discuss politics on the Internet, in on-line forums and on websites – whether by taking part in heated arguments; or by publishing or sharing stories or images of things such as war, peace, justice, patriotism, heroism, betrayal. Then social media became popular, so I moved on to studying the ways it can be mobilised by governments, armies, or activists. To this date, I have published several books on the topic:

• An ethnographic explorations of the relations between violence and on-line community making
• An analysis of how emotions and feelings work in on-line environments, in particular in political contexts (with Athina Karatzogianni)
• A book about social media in the service of Israeli militarism and settler state violence (with Rebecca L. Stein)
• An overview of the politics of selfie-based activism around the world
• A book about digital refusal and opt out (with Esperanza Miyake)

In adition to digital politics, I have also researched issues of gender and sexuality; migration; violence; and collective memory. My work has taken me to memoirs of the Soviet Gulags; racism in the name of queerness; post-Soviet melancholia and forgotten histories; haunted futurities; digital memory, and much more.

In the last few years, my work has taken a new direction, towards a critical exploration of digital cultures, politics and communication from two angles:

(1) the right to not be included in digital data and sociality and the right to opt out and disconnect
(2) environmental harms of digital technologies and on-line communication and how these are linked to racial and social injustice

I am currently coordinating the Digital Politics research cluster, which includes a PhD pathway, a series of reseasrch activities, and a blog.

Why do I teach?

Digital communication changes so rapidly, that my students find themselves among the first ones trying to understand what is happening and why. Why do people believe fake news? Why are smaprtphone apps so popular that we cannot imagine our lives without them? What is biometric governance? How do algorithms perpetuate racial injustice? Will digital technologies destroy the planet? We read books to enrich our understanding, and look at the real world examples of digital politics around us. The discussions in my classroom are always most fascinating and insightful, and I know they give the student the best tools to grow professionally and intellectually.

How I’ll teach you

My classroom is based on the principle of democratic learning: we are in this together. We discuss, we share ideas, we create a dialogue where, eventually, you become the experts.

Postgraduate teaching

I am the Programme Leader of the MA in International Relations and Global Communications, and the Programme Co-Leader of the MSc in Digital Society. I contribute to several exciting units:

• Current Issues in Digital Media and Politics, where we explore topics such as digital wars, digital labour, platform society, online activism, and more.
• Digital Living, where I teach about the impact of digital technologies on everyday life in areas such as algorithmic governance, health, cultural memory, and the environment.
• Digital Politics Around the World, where we explore how digial politics take shape in different countries and contexts
• Masterclass, where I deliver specialised training on interdisciplinary analysis of digital technologies and their political effects.Each year, we learn about and then apply one research method, such asthe  App Walkthrough method for studying smartphone apps in a range of contexts.
• Becoming a Digital Researcher, where I teach qualitative digital methods and digital ethics.

My teaching materials and topics are updated regularly, in line with the rapidly developing field of digital political communication, digital politics, and digital society. This year, a lot of the teaching is dedicated to exploring the role of digital technologies in the COVID-19 pandemic, for example, the use of contat tracing apps as a tool of public health management and as a form of digital surveillance.

Finally, as a published author, I regularly use my most recent research in the classroom, discussing latest developments in the field.

Subject areas

Digital Politics, social media, environmental communication

I have supervised and informally supported many PhD students to succesfull completion. Currently, I am supervising several PhD projects on social media, mobile technologies, and digital politics. I am also co-ordinating a PhD pathway in digital politics, including regular workshops, reading groups and Summer and Winter schools

I welcome prospective PhD students in the areas of digital politics; digital memory; environmental media; as well as in any other areas of my research expertise and interest.

In the last few years, my work has taken a new direction, towards a critical exploration of digital cultures and communication from two angles: (1) the right to not be included in digital data and sociality; and (2) the environmental tolls of digital communicaton.

The first exploration began as a collaborative project (with Esperanza Miyake) of what we coined ‘digital disengagement’ - a conscious reduction or rejection of the use of digital devices or communication platforms. In a series of short studies, we examined narratives and experiences of disconnection and refusal; the appropriation of disengagement initiatives by neo-liberal services and commercial digital initiatives; and the (im)possibility of opting out of digital health. Conceptually, we proposed to denaturalise digital engagement by placing refusal and opt out at the start of any critical conversation around digital culture and society. We arfued that while digital disengagement can be socially and politically transformative, the recent rise in initiatives such as ‘digital detoxes’ points to the profoundly unequal distribution of the luxury to disengage, where it emerges as a choice or even a right - but ony for some.We also argued that disengagement and opt out needs to be understood from the perspective of data justice and data rights, however in order to escape the neo-liberal trap of individualised responsibility and blame, those rights ought to be reformulated as collective rather than individual.

The second exploration focuses on the materiality of digital data and communicaiton, and in particular, the environmental harms inflicted by the ever-growing extraction of resources needed to produce digital devices; the toxicity of e-waste; and the rapidly increasing energy demands of data centres, needed to sustain every click, website, database or ‘smart’ network. At the heart of this exploration lies a troubling question of the highest relevance to today’s global community: how to reconcile the usefulness of digitisation and its rapid and expansive adoption into environmental policies and sustainability projects, with the extensive environmental damages, brought on by the digitisation itself? The project is in its early stages. Please contact me for more details