Dr Sara Vannini

MA (Bologna, Italy), PhD (Lugano, Switzerland)

Information School

Lecturer in Information Management and Information Systems

Sara Vannini
Profile picture of Sara Vannini
s.vannini@sheffield.ac.uk

Full contact details

Dr Sara Vannini
Information School
Room C222
The Wave
2 Whitham Road
Sheffield
S10 2AH
Profile

I hold a MA in Latin American Literatures from the University of Bologna, Italy, with a dissertation on educational practices and indigenous knowledge in Southern Chile, and a PhD in Communication Sciences from the University of Lugano, Switzerland, with a thesis on public access to Information and Communication Technologies in Mozambique.

After graduating from my PhD, I worked initially as a Post-Doctoral Researcher at the BeCHANGE Research Group and at the NewMinE Lab at the University of Lugano, on projects related to health communication, environmental security, social marketing, and information and communication technologies for development (ICT4D). Then, I was awarded an Early.PostDoc fellowship from the Swiss National Science Foundation to join the Technology and Social Change - TASCHA group at the University of Washington Information School, Seattle, WA (USA). After my Post-Doc, I started working as a Lecturer at the University of Washington Department of Communications and the Integrated Social Sciences online program. I joined the Information School at Sheffield as a Lecturer in Information Management and Information Systems in 2020.

Research interests

My research interests are at the intersection of critical studies of technology and society, social change, and information ethics. I focus on social appropriation and embodied experiences of technologies by different social groups, information privacy in the context of migration, the role of public access to information in mis/disinformation, and participatory and visual methodologies of inquiry.

I am interested in supervising PhD projects that advance critical, post-colonial, feminist and participatory studies of:

  • Information and communication technologies for development and social change
  • Data justice, data privacy and security in the context of underserved, vulnerable, or oppressed populations
  • Mis/dis-information as connected to information literacy and public access to information
  • Social construction and embodied experiences of information and communication technologies
  • Migration and sanctuary studies connected to information and communication technologies
Publications

Show: Featured publications All publications

Journal articles

Chapters

  • Azhar F, Vannini S, Newell BC & Gomez R (2021) Navigating borders/navigating networks: migration, technology and social capital In McAuliffe M (Ed.), Research Handbook on International Migration and Digital Technology Edward Elgar Publishing RIS download Bibtex download
  • Vannini S & Rega I (2020) Mobile information literacy and public access in the era of post-truth: reflections from community curricular experiences in Latin America In Traxler J & Crompton H (Ed.), Critical Mobile Pedagogy Cases of Digital Technologies and Learners at the Margins Routledge RIS download Bibtex download
  • Vannini S & Rega I (2020) Mobile Information Literacy and Public Access in the Era of Post-Truth, Critical Mobile Pedagogy (pp. 110-122). Routledge RIS download Bibtex download

Conference proceedings papers

All publications

Journal articles

Chapters

  • Azhar F, Vannini S, Newell BC & Gomez R (2021) Navigating borders/navigating networks: migration, technology and social capital In McAuliffe M (Ed.), Research Handbook on International Migration and Digital Technology Edward Elgar Publishing RIS download Bibtex download
  • Vannini S & Rega I (2020) Mobile information literacy and public access in the era of post-truth: reflections from community curricular experiences in Latin America In Traxler J & Crompton H (Ed.), Critical Mobile Pedagogy Cases of Digital Technologies and Learners at the Margins Routledge RIS download Bibtex download
  • Vannini S & Rega I (2020) Mobile Information Literacy and Public Access in the Era of Post-Truth, Critical Mobile Pedagogy (pp. 110-122). Routledge RIS download Bibtex download

Conference proceedings papers

Teaching activities

I am currently contributing to the modules:

  • INF6350 Information Literacy
  • INF6553 Information Literacy
  • INF6400: Information Systems and the Information Society