Dr Itzelle Medina-Perea

My research is in the growing field of Critical Data Studies. It explores ideational and material factors shaping data practices. My work has been mainly concerned with understanding how the culture of university-based researchers impacts the flow of health data generated in the UK healthcare sector and how socio-cultural values and norms interact to shape the movement of data through interconnected information systems. These research interests are relevant within debates with a critical perspective on the uses of data. I conduct these explorations by applying qualitative methods (e.g. critical discourse analysis, interviews, focus groups, participant observation). 

Before my current role, I worked on two large-scale interdisciplinary research projects:

• From 2021 to 2023, I worked as a postdoctoral researcher on Patterns in Practice (AHRC-funded), investigating how practitioners’ beliefs, values and feelings interact to shape how they engage with and in data mining and machine learning. External partners: GSK and JISC.
• From 2019 to 2021, I worked as a researcher on Living with Data (Nuffield-funded), exploring how people feel and think about the uses of personal data. External partners: DWP and BBC.

I am interested in supervising PhD projects which adopt a critical approach to studying data flows, data practices, and the uses of data and digital technologies. I am primarily a qualitative researcher and am experienced in a variety of methods (e.g. critical discourse analysis, interviews, focus groups, participant observation).

Potential topics include:

• Data flows in the healthcare sector
• Impact of data sharing scandals and controversies in shaping data flows and data practices
• Public and practitioner expectations  about the uses of personal data and data-driven research
• Use and reuse of personal data
• Use of digital technologies in the healthcare sector
• Data and AI changing organisations and society both positively and negatively