User:Birchallchris

Dr Chris Birchall
Lecturer in Digital Media
School of media and communication
University of Leeds
https://ahc.leeds.ac.uk/media/staff/197/chris-birchall

I am Lecturer in Digital Media and am currently the BA Digital Media programme leader, co-convener of the Digital Culture research group and a member of the Political Communication and Critical Data Studies research groups. My background is that of a professional software and web developer, having worked in a variety of positions in IT companies, as a freelancer, in the voluntary sector, the NHS and within Higher Education. After postgraduate study in Geographical Information Systems sparked my interest in public participation in local planning and policy debates I moved on to study the role of technology in the public sphere and the effects of technological mediation of the social world. I joined the School in 2010 as a Research Associate, becoming a lecturer in 2016 after completing a PhD which focused on interface design, social dynamics and political conversation in online spaces.