Dr Itzelle Medina-Perea

BA (UNAM, Mexico), MA (Sheffield), PhD (Sheffield)

School of Information, Journalism and Communication

Lecturer in Information Systems

i.medinaperea@sheffield.ac.uk

Room C600, The Wave

Full contact details

Dr Itzelle Medina-Perea
School of Information, Journalism and Communication
Room C600
The Wave
2 Whitham Road
Sheffield
S10 2AH

Profile

I am a Lecturer in Information Systems at the Information School since September 2023. I am interested in exploring the factors that shape data flows, data practices, and the uses of data and information systems.

Adopting a Critical Data Studies perspective, my PhD (Award date: February 2022) contributes to understanding how ideational factors (e.g. beliefs, assumptions, expectations), in interaction with material conditions (e.g. funding, infrastructure and labour) work together to shape the movement of health data. I focused on how the expectations of university-based researchers interact with material conditions to shape the circulation of data through interconnected information systems from the UK healthcare sector to universities for reuse in research.

Before starting my current role, I held a variety of teaching and research positions at this University. Highlights of my research trajectory include my participation as a researcher in two large-scale projects: Patterns in Practice (AHRC-funded) and Living with Data (Nuffield-funded). Since 2017, I have engaged in a diverse range of teaching activities at the Information School, actively contributing to a variety of modules within the following masters courses: Information Systems, Data Science, Information Management, and Librarianship. Before this, I worked as a university teaching associate in the BA Librarianship programme at The National Autonomous University of Mexico.

In addition to this, I have experience beyond academia, having worked for the World Wide Web Foundation (A4AI Good Practices Database - Alliance for Affordable Internet), and for the National Council of Science and Technology (CONAHCYT Mexico).

Departmental responsibilities

Departmental Employment Coordinator
Employability Lead for Information Management and Information Systems

Research interests

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

Publications

Journal articles

Kennedy H, Ditchfield H, Oman S, Bates J, Medina Perea I, Fratczak M & Taylor M (2024) How people connect fairness and equity when they talk about data uses. Big Data and Society, 11(4). View this article in WRRO
Ditchfield H, Oman S, Kennedy H, Fratczak M, Bates J, Taylor M & Medina Perea I (2024) What ifs: the role of imagining in people's reflections on data uses. Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies. View this article in WRRO
Medina-Perea I, Bates J & Cox A (2024) ‘Data saves lives’: Ideational-material drivers of health data journeys in the UK. Big Data & Society, 11(4).
Wakeling S, Willett P, Creaser C, Fry J, Pinfield S, Spezi V, Bonne M, Founti CM & Medina Perea I (2020) ‘No comment’? A study of commenting on PLOS articles. Journal of Information Science, 46(1), 82-100. View this article in WRRO
Medina Perea I, Bates J, Fratczak M, Kennedy H & Ochu E () BELIEFS, VALUES AND EMOTIONS IN PRACTITIONERS’ ENGAGEMENTS WITH LEARNING ANALYTICS IN HIGHER EDUCATION. AoIR Selected Papers of Internet Research.
Bates J, Kennedy H, Medina Perea I, Oman S & Pinney L () Socially meaningful transparency in data-based systems: reflections and proposals from practice. Journal of Documentation. View this article in WRRO

Chapters

Medina-Perea I, Bates J, Fratczak M & Ochu E (2024) Beliefs, Values and Emotions in Education Practitioners’ Engagements with Learning Analytics in Higher Education, Wisdom, Well-Being, Win-Win (pp. 54-61). Springer Nature Switzerland

Conference proceedings papers

Medina Perea IA, Bates J & Cox A (2019) Using data journeys to inform research design: Socio-cultural dynamics of patient data flows in the UK healthcare sector. iConference 2019 Proceedings
Medina Perea IA, Bates J & Cox A () Exploring the life of patient data in the UK healthcare sector. AoIR Selected Papers of Internet Research, 2020(2020: AoIR2020)

Reports

Kennedy H, Taylor M, Oman S, Bates J, Medina Perea I, Ditchfield H & Pinney E (2021) Living with Data survey report

Website content

Medina Perea I & Medina Perea IA NHS data gathering: government plans to collect and share health records are hugely concerning – here’s why.
Medina Perea IA Health data sharing: scandals and solutions to improve health research data practices.
Medina Perea IA & Guler G Data for Policy 2020: Recap of Day 1.

Posters

Medina Perea IA (2018) The socio-cultural factors that influence the movement of personal data in the UK healthcare sector. Information Behaviour Conference (ISIC).

Teaching activities

INF401 - AI in Organisations

INF6022 - Information Knowledge and Management

INF6041 - ICTs, Innovation and Change

INF6320 - Information Systems and Organisations

Professional activities and memberships

Co-editor of Data & Policy Journal, Area 5 Algorithmic Governance (2023 -)
Peer reviewer for journals and international conferences: Big Data and Society, Online Information Review, Data & Policy, iConference, AoIR Conference.
Member of The Public Data Lab (https://publicdatalab.org/), an interdisciplinary network exploring what difference the digital makes in attending to public problems.
Member of the Association of Internet Researchers (2020 -)
Member of ASIS&T (2023 -)