Dr Ozge Ozduzen
Department of Sociological Studies
Lecturer in Digital Media and Society
GTA co-ordinator
(She/her)
Full contact details
Department of Sociological Studies
Elmfield Building
Northumberland Road
Sheffield
S10 2TU
- Profile
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Ozge joined the Department of Sociological Studies as a lecturer in digital media and society in August 2021. Ozge’s research interests lie in two key areas. First, Ozge studies media activism and participation, where she investigates political voice and mobilisation and intersectional approaches to urban and digital citizenship. Second, her research covers the interrelated areas of contentious digital publics, the visibility and spread of online conspiracy theories, and social media engagement during conflicts and crises. Ozge uses both qualitative (e.g., discourse-analysis-centred methods, in-depth interviews, and participant observation) and quantitative (e.g., sentiment and content analyses) methods in her research on digital media and society. Previously, Ozge was a lecturer in sociology and communications at Brunel University London, British Academy Newton International Postdoctoral Fellow in the Institute for Diplomacy and International Governance at Loughborough University London, a post-doc at the Centre for Middle Eastern Studies in Lund University, funded by the Swedish Institute, and a fully funded international PhD student in the media department at Edge Hill University (2016). Ozge attended university at the liberal and prestigious Boğaziçi University in Istanbul.
- Research interests
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Main areas of research:
- Digital activism
- Digital identities and politics
- Far-right digital publics
- Visual cultures
- Online conspiracy theories
- Online racism
Currently, Ozge’s research is on how racist, xenophobic, misogynistic and transphobic views and ideologies become widespread on Twitter, YouTube and TikTok at times of socio-political crises. As part of this, Ozge studied online racism patterns and pathways related to Syrians, following the humanitarian crisis, focusing on the ways users engage with social media platforms for their racist place-making activities and categorise the figure of the "refugee". Currently, Ozge works on the digital cultures of radicalised right-wing groups and their online audience-making strategies, examining the mainstreaming of these cultures online, especially through an investigation of conspiracy theories and anti-lockdown/vaccine political mobilisation. So far, Ozge’s research has been funded by the British Academy; Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC); Swedish Institute; the European Commission and Political Studies Association (PSA). Ozge is a Principal Investigator for a Horizon 2020 project entitled "D.Rad: De-Radicalisation in Europe and Beyond: Detect, Resolve, Re-integrate" (December 2020- December 2023), where she co-leads a work package on the mainstreaming of radicalisation on social media platforms and media's potential roles in de-radicalisation as part of a large international team in Europe and the Middle East. At the moment, Ozge also works on a project on the anti-lockdown political expression and identities on social media platforms and in physical spaces during the Covid-19 pandemic, funded by the Political Studies Association and Global Lives Research Centre.
- Publications
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Journal articles
- From streets to courthouses: digital and post-digital forms of image activism in the post-occupy Turkey. Turkish Studies, 22(2), 267-289. View this article in WRRO
- ‘We are not Arabs and Taksim is ours’: YouTubed political agency, place-making and social exclusion of Syrians. City: analysis of urban trends, culture, theory, policy, action, 24(5-6), 741-758. View this article in WRRO
- Enmeshing the mundane and the political: Twitter, LGBTI+ outing and macro-political polarisation in Turkey. Contemporary Politics, 26(5), 493-511. View this article in WRRO
- ‘Refugees are not welcome’: Digital racism, online place-making and the evolving categorization of Syrians in Turkey. New Media & Society. View this article in WRRO
- ‘Cinema as a common activity’ : Film audiences, social inclusion, and heterogeneity in Istanbul during the Occupy Gezi. Journal of Language and Politics, 19(3), 436-456. View this article in WRRO
- Digital traces of “Twitter Revolutions”: resistance, polarization, and surveillance via contested images and texts of occupy Gezi. International Journal of Communication, 14, 2543-2563. View this article in WRRO
- Spaces of hope in authoritarian Turkey: Istanbul's interconnected geographies of post-Occupy activism. Political Geography, 70, 34-43. View this article in WRRO
- Cinema-going during the Gezi protests: claiming the right to the Emek movie theatre and Gezi Park. Social & Cultural Geography, 19(8), 1028-1052. View this article in WRRO
- The politicisation and ‘occupy’sation of the Istanbul Film Festival audience. Participations, 12(1), 679-702. View this article in WRRO
Chapters
- DIY Media and Urban Citizenship: Intersectional Post-Occupy Media Activism in Turkey, Authoritarian Neoliberalism and Resistance in Turkey (pp. 191-210).
- Bearing Witness to Authoritarianism and Commoning through Video Activism and Political Film-making after the Gezi Protests In McGarry A, Erhart I, Eslen-Ziya H, Jenzen O & Korkut U (Ed.), The Aesthetics of Global Protest: Visual Culture and Communication (pp. 191-210). Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. View this article in WRRO
Book reviews
- State, Media, and Political Messaging in Contemporary Turkey. The Cairo Review of Global Affairs, 41(Spring 2021). View this article in WRRO
- The Paradox of Creative Constraints—7 September 2019—The Mosaic Rooms, London.. Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication, 13(1), 120-122. View this article in WRRO
- Media Representations of the Cultural Other in Turkey, by Alparslan Nas. Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication, 2(12), 256-258. View this article in WRRO
Reports
- Trends of Radicalisation in the UK
- Cultural Drivers of Radicalisation in the UK View this article in WRRO
- Stakeholders of (De)-Radicalisation in the UK View this article in WRRO
- The Digital Publics of #Schengen and #Eurozone During the Coronavirus Crisis View this article in WRRO
Website content
- Post-‘Refugee Crisis’ Social Media: The unbearable lightness of sharing racist posts.
- Digital Mundane: Political Expression and Polarisation on Twitter in the Post-Refugee Crisis’.
- Robots, kittens and Netflix: Turkish curbs on the media reach ludicrous levels.
- From streets to courthouses: digital and post-digital forms of image activism in the post-occupy Turkey. Turkish Studies, 22(2), 267-289. View this article in WRRO
- Grants
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British Academy, the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) and the Science & Innovation Network in the USA (SIN USA), Mapping and visualising intersections of social inequalities, community mistrust, and vaccine hesitancy in online and physical spaces in the UK and US, Principal Investigator (October 2021 – April 2022), £111,230
Horizon 2020 - De-Radicalisation in Europe and Beyond: Detect, Resolve, Re-integrate, (D.Rad), Principal Investigator (December 2020 - December 2023) - €183,750
Global Lives Research Centre - £2000
Political Studies Association (PSA) Research and Innovation Fund 2021 - £1150
AHRC - 5GXR - Exploring the potential for 5G for the games and performing arts sectors Co-Investigator (May 2020 - January 2021) £44,766
British Academy Training and Dissemination Grant (2019) £5024
British Academy Newton International Fellowship NF170302 (2017-2019) £81,577
Swedish Institute Postdoctoral Fellowship 02496/2017 (2017) SEK 216,000
- Teaching activities
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Ozge is the module convenor for The Digital Self and Visual Methods for Social Scientists modules at the Department of Sociological Studies. In her teaching, Ozge embraces a cross-cultural understanding of and a multi-method approach on digital cultures and politics. She integrates her research into her teaching, combining her background in cultural studies, politics, and media and communications to help her students obtain an interdisciplinary understanding of digital identities and visual cultures and methods. She uses student-led teaching methodologies and harnesses social media tools for learning. Ozge previously taught various media and communications and sociology modules including making web cultures, social media and networked cultures, creative industries, fashion and culture, creative Industries, racism, identity, and difference as well as foundational modules on media, culture and communications. She also taught in various media departments in Turkey, bringing an international teaching practice beyond the UK/EU setting.
- Postgraduate supervision
Ozge is an experienced supervisor for students at BSc and MSc levels. She has supervised undergraduate and postgraduate dissertations on digital cultures and social identities at the University of Sheffield, Brunel University and Loughborough University, including Brexit memes, #MeToo culture, celebrity diplomacy and alternative online platforms in China. Ozge would be interested in supervising PhD students on online political cultures, DIY media activism, visual politics, online disinformation campaigns and conspiracy theories, media and its relationship to radicalisation, and crisis communication.