A. Akbari Kharazi PhD (Azadeh)

Azadeh Akbari is an Assistant Professor in Public Administration & Digital Transformation at the Faculty of Behavioural, Management & Social Sciences at the University of Twente. She is also the co-director of the International Surveillance Studies Network. Her research focuses on the politics of surveillance, especially forms of authoritarian surveillance, data justice, and gender-specific surveillance. Azadeh is an associate editor for the journals Surveillance & Society and Information Technology for Development. She also has founded Surveillance in the Global South Research Network to expand the scope of surveillance studies to include non-Western discourses and practices and create a place for exchange, collaboration, and activism against the undemocratic use of surveillance technologies. Her current research on Authoritarian Smart Cities is funded by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Global Fellowship.

Azadeh has studied sociology (BA) and journalism in Iran and gender research (MSc) at the London School of Economics and Political Sciences. She obtained her PhD in human geography from the University of Heidelberg and then joined the University of Münster as a postdoctoral research associate in political geography. Azadeh has been a journalist for many years and has worked as a communication manager and community outreach specialist at the UNHCR, UNICEF, and the British Council.

Organisations

• Faculty of Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences (BMS), Public Administration (PA)