Research Supervisor Details

This page provides additional information about our research supervisors. You can either browser supervisors by department or search for them by keyword. Most supervisors also have a personal webpage where you can find out more about them.

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Dr Jared Ahmad
j.ahmad@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Journalism, Media and Communication

Journalism, Politics, & Communication

Jared’s research principally focuses questions of (self-)representation, power and identity in regard to non-state terrorism. He has principally written on print, broadcast and online portrayals of 'Islamic' terrorist groups, such as al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, and is especially interested in the complex interactions that take place between terrorists, political elites, journalists and citizens in today's 'hybrid' media environment. His work is interdisciplinary and fuses approaches taken from cultural studies, political communications, visual culture, and poststructuralist theory.  

Jared’s current research focuses on the way different groups imagine the Islamic State phenomenon, and examines the interplay between the group’s propaganda and media, policy and public imaginations of the threat. He also has a growing interest in ultranationalist and far-right extremist propaganda narratives and imagery.   

PhD supervision

Jared is particularly interested in hearing from research students writing on the following areas:

  • Media discourses and representations of the East, Islam, terrorism and political violence
  • The politics/processes of terrorist/extremist (self)representation, knowledge and power 
  • Violent Jihadi or far-right extremist propaganda
  • Terrorism and visual political communication
Dr Dmitry Chernobrov
d.chernobrov@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Journalism, Media and Communication

Media & International Politics

Dmitry's research focuses on four main areas:

  • public perception of international politics
  • humour in political communication and international relations
  • humanitarian crisis communication
  • diasporas, social media and conflict.

Dmitry argues that public perceptions of international crises are shaped primarily by local anxieties, cultural memories, insecurities and hopes, and above all by the societal need for positive and continuous self-conceptions. This research offers an interdisciplinary integration of international relations, political psychology, memory, and media studies. 

Dmitry is also interested in how humanitarian agencies and media see the future of communication in crises; how these visions differ between western and non-western contexts; and how the appearance of digital humanitarians and direct communication channels redraws the traditional roles and powers of crisis actors. This research involves interviews and collaborations with major humanitarian agencies.

In recent years, Dmitry has also published articles on the use of humour in public diplomacy, and on the Armenian diaspora, social media mobilisation and conflict.

PhD supervision

Dmitry is particularly interested in hearing from research students focusing on the following areas:

  • Media representations, self-representations, identity and public opinion 
  • Public diplomacy and strategic narratives
  • Collective memory and emotion
  • Humour in political communication and international relations
  • Humanitarian crises and communication
  • Critical conceptions of security/insecurity in media and politics
  • Diasporas, social media and conflict


Professor Jacqueline Harrison
j.harrison@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Journalism, Media and Communication

Public Communication & Media Freedom

Jackie's area of expertise is the civil role and power of the news. Her research examines three particular aspects of this: the architecture and culture of the news; the mediation of civil society and social identity by the news; and issues of news freedom and standards. She has written extensively in these areas.

Jackie also chairs the interdisciplinary research body Centre for Freedom of the Media (CFOM). CFOM seeks to research and evaluate the role of free and independent news media in building and maintaining political and civil freedoms.

PhD supervision

Due to her numerous other commitments Jackie is unable to supervise new PhD students at present.

When her workload permits, Jackie will be interested in hearing from research students focusing on the following areas:

  • The relationship between the news and civil society
  • Post conflict reconstruction via the factual mass media
  • Constraints and restraints on freedom of expression
Dr Emma Heywood
e.heywood@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Journalism, Media and Communication

Journalism, Radio and Communication

Emma's research interests lie in the role of radio and social media in fragile and conflict-affected zones. She is particularly interested in working with journalists, and also with audiences to ensure the information they receive is indeed what they want, when they want it, in the language they prefer and in a format they can identify with. 

She collaborates with international media development agencies, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), civil society organisations (CSOs) and humanitarian agencies operating in the Global South. She leads the FemmePowermentAfrique project, which conducts large-scale qualitative and quantitative participatory research into the impact of radio, and social media, on women's empowerment and youth in the Sahel. Her work with internally displaced populations and other marginalised and isolated communities in the Global South has enabled her recommendations to be adopted by many UN bodies. 

Emma’s main research focus is media development, media for development, audience research, and working with international and local agencies to promote and improve radio and social media as a communicative and peacebuilding tool.

In recent years, Emma has published books and articles on radio in conflict, women's empowerment, trauma sensitive communication and qualitative methodologies in the Global South.


PhD Supervision

Emma is particularly interested in hearing from research students focusing on the following areas:

  • Radio, (social) media and international development 

  • Humanitarian crises and communication 

  • Audiences and audience feedback and associated methodologies

  • The interaction between media and international development agencies, NGOs, and CSOs 

  • The role of radio in a changing media context

  • Women’s empowerment, international development and media

Dr Eirini Katsirea
i.katsirea@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Journalism, Media and Communication

International Media Law

Irini's research interests are in the areas of European, international and comparative media law and policy. She has published extensively in these areas. Her current research projects include 'Examining the impact of IPSO on editorial standards and complaints handling', funded by IPSO, and "Press Regulation in the Digital Era."

PhD supervision

Irini is particularly interested in hearing from research students focusing on the following areas:

  • International, European and comparative media law and policy
  • Freedom of expression
  • Information law
Dr Dani Madrid Morales
d.madrid-morales@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Journalism, Media and Communication

Global Communication and Computational Methods in Journalism

Dani's research focuses on global political communication and international media flows, with a focus on the Global South. He has published on the impact of global Chinese media on local journalistic cultures in English and French speaking Africa. He has also studied the multiple ways audiences in East and Southern Africa engage with news and entertainment on Chinese media.


In recent years, he has also been interested in the geopolitics of disinformation in Sub-Saharan Africa, particularly from an audience perspective. He is currently examining how media users engage with disinformation online, and how foreign disinformation influences public opinion.

In his research, Dani employs a wide range of methods and welcomes students with a keen interest in mixed methods, including computational approaches to the study of media texts.

PhD Supervision

Dani is particularly interested in hearing from research students focusing on the following areas:

  • China-Africa media relations
  • Disinformation in Sub-Saharan Africa
  • Global public opinion
  • Audiences and global media flows
  • Computational approaches to the study news
Dr Binakuromo Ogbebor
b.ogbebor@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Journalism, Media and Communication

Journalism, Media and Communication

Bina’s research interests include media representation, the relationship between the media and democracy, critical incidents in journalism, race equality in journalism, media policy, and media self-coverage. Bina’s research and publications have contributed to knowledge relating to key debates about press regulation, the public interest, public trust, media ownership, political economy of the media, paradigm repair, boundary work, and the public sphere concept. Her research into how the British press covered the press standards debate that followed The News of the World phone hacking scandal and the Leveson Inquiry employed content and critical discourse analyses and was interdisciplinary in content drawing from law, politics and psychology in addition to journalism. 

Bina’s research entitled, A meta-analysis of key concerns and developments on media standards informed the 2020-2022 Impress Code Review. The research findings were used by the press regulator, Impress to modernise the Standards Code and make it fit for purpose in the digital age. Her research on the WhatsApp, Black People and COVID-19 Infodemic explored the WhatsApp Communications of Nigerians in the UK and Nigeria, using the methods of interviews and content analysis. This work made contributions to knowledge about effective health communications in times of Public Health Emergencies. Bina’s current research investigates race-based student activism in journalism, media, and communication schools in the UK using the methods of content analysis, interviews, and surveys. 

PhD Supervision 

  • Bina is interested in supervising students in the following areas:
  • The relationship between the media and democracy
  • Race equality involving Black Asian and Minority Ethnic groups
  • Media representation on diverse platforms
  • Media self-coverage 
  • Political economy of the media

Dr Lada Price
l.t.price@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Journalism, Media and Communication

Journalism Practice, Media Freedom & Democracy

Lada's research is focused on media and journalistic practice in Eastern and Southern European democracies. She has published on threats to media freedom, such as censorship and self-censorship, media corruption, ethical challenges to journalistic practice, and violence and intimidation against journalists. She is also working on a cross-national comparative study researching more recent challenges to media freedom in four Southern European countries -  Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece and Malta. The study aims to map the impact of external political, economic, legal and societal factors on the way(s) news organisations and journalists operate in times of crisis. 

Lada's research is also focused on trauma in journalism. Lada has just completed a BA Leverhulme funded research project titled "Creating a safe space for journalists to speak about trauma: Examining the roles of journalism educators". The project has developed a new framework for building resilience to trauma among journalism practitioners and students. 

PhD Supervision

Lada is interested in hearing from potential research students focusing in the following areas: 

  • Journalism and democracy
  • Constraints to media freedom on journalism practice
  • Trauma and resilience in journalism practice and education
  • Physical and psychological safety in journalism
  • Journalism ethics


Professor Stefanie Pukallus
s.pukallus@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Journalism, Media and Communication

Public Communication & Civil Development

Stef’s research interest and expertise focus on the role that public communication can play in the building, developing and diminishing of civil society. She has previously focused on the European Community and now focuses on post-civil war settings. For her the communicative spectrum of civil society includes non-mediated verbal communication, the factual and fictional media as well as the performative and the visual arts. She is equally interested in communicative spaces and the role of civility in civil society.

Stef is co-founder and Chair of the Hub for the Study of Hybrid Communication in Peacebuilding (HCPB). She is currently working on her third monograph ‘Communication in Peacebuilding. Civil wars, civility and safe spaces’ (under contract) and acting as an advisor for UN Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration (UN DDP) and their public information module.

PhD supervision

Stef is particularly interested in hearing from research students focusing on the following areas:

  • The role of public communication (as conceived above) in peacebuilding
  • The role of civility in civil societies
  • Communicative spaces
Dr Pawel Surowiec
p.surowiec@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Journalism, Media and Communication

International Politics, Democratisation, Campaigning

Paweł’s areas of interest are:

  • Soft power statecraft and public diplomacy
  • Propaganda, disinformation and misinformation
  • Political participation and digital campaigning
  • Illiberal turn in international politics
  • Social movements and social media.

PhD supervision

Pawel is particularly interested in hearing from doctoral candidates who would like to develop their expertise in the following areas:

  • Political communication and democratisation
  • Soft power, public diplomacy and digital diplomacy
  • Strategic communication and political public relations
  • Propaganda, disinformation and misinformation
  • Political participation and digital politics
  • Political journalism and journalistic routines
Dr Jingrong Tong
j.tong@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Journalism, Media and Communication

Journalism, technology & society

Jingrong is currently writing about data and journalism as well as (social) media discourses of political and environmental issues. Her current research interests include the impact of digital technology on journalism, social media communication, discourses of social issues, and environmental communication. She has expertise in computational (social) media analysis.

PhD supervision

Jingrong is particularly interested in hearing from research students focusing on the following areas:

  • Journalism, technology and society
  • Data and communication
  • Discourses, politics and/or the environment
  • Social media communication
Dr James Whitworth
james.whitworth@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Journalism, Media and Communication

Journalism, its history and the visual.

James is a journalism historian and writer with expertise in twenty and twenty-first century print media, with a special interest in newspaper and magazine topical cartoons. His work considers the role of journalism over the past 100 years through the prism of social context. He has principally written about how the visual is utilised within a textual medium and how journalism and history both inform and influence contemporary journalism. 

James’ current research focuses on investigating how social history is reflected in the democratisation of the popular press and how journalistic discourse operates within war and conflict paradigms. 

PhD supervision

James is particularly interested in hearing from research students writing on the following areas:

  • Journalism history from 1880
  • The role of journalism during war and conflicts
  • The popular press in Britain
  • Newspaper and magazine topical news cartoons
  • Social history and the press
Dr Ilya Yablokov
i.yablokov@sheffield.ac.uk
Personal Webpage

School of Journalism, Media and Communication

Disinformation, (Self)censorship, Newsmaking, Russian and East European media

Ilya’s research includes two areas. First, he is interested in the study of state-funded disinformation campaigns with the focus on Russia and post-socialist countries. I am particularly interested in conspiracy theories, character assassination campaigns and disinformation as tools of political communication. I have written on Russian conspiracy theories inside Russia and abroad and continue to work on the projects related to Russian disinformation on the state and the grassroots level both inside Russia and the countries of Central/Eastern Europe and the Global South.

Ilya’s second area of expertise is the organisational aspect of newsmaking in Central and Eastern Europe: formal and informal networks of journalists and politicians, newsmaking process and the issues of censorship/self-censorship. I have been the primary investigator of the British Academy research grant on self-censorship among journalists in Russia, Latvia and Hungary (2017-2019). Currently I am working on the book about the history of Russian media post-1991 that investigates the role of journalists in facilitating Putin’s authoritarian regime.

PhD Supervison 

Ilya is particularly interested in the topics related to:

  • Disinformation and conspiracy theories
  • Censorship and self-censorship in media
  • Character assassination in politics
  • Political communication in authoritarian regimes