Ravelijn

dr. A.A.C.G. van der Graaf (Shenja)

Associate Professor
BMS-HIB-CS
Ravelijn 1349
shenja.vandergraaf@utwente.nl
+31534897135
Business card

Shenja van der Graaf is a digital society scholar at the Department of Communication Science at the technical University of Twente. If there is one common thread joining her research activities together, it is an interest in moments of transition and the dynamics that accompany them arising from innovations associated with information and communication technologies. Interests and expertise focus on production and consumption cultures; media (histories) and everyday life; media infrastructures; media / ICT (responsible) innovation and regulation in the public interest; and, alternative economic and governance systems.

Van der Graaf has held several research, advisory and management positions, in particular in the Netherlands, Belgium, UK, Japan, and USA. In various positions she has served as a PI on major grants and consulted with public and private entities, such as OECD, European Commission, UN, Turner Networks, and Microsoft. Her expertise has also been shown and translated into various lectureships, (board) memberships and publications. In this capacity, she has been committed to exploring how greater understanding of media systems can inform and assist citizens, scholars and policymakers in Europe and abroad to advance campaigns for technological literacy, creative expression, social justice, and human rights.Ā 

Before joining the BMS faculty, van der Graaf was Principal Researcher at imec-SMIT, VUB leading the Unit ā€˜Data Governance & Communitiesā€™ (former ā€˜Smart Citiesā€™), where she also served as a Board member.

Van der Graaf is a graduate of Utrecht University (MA, 1999), Leiden University (Postgrad, 2000) and the London School of Economics and Political Science (PhD, 2009). She has been an honorary fellow at MIT Media Lab (ID3 Hub), a fellow at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society (Harvard) and the Research Center for Information Law (University of St. Gallen), a consulting researcher at Convergence Culture Consortium (MIT), an alumna of the Oxford Internet Institute (Oxford), and worked as consultant for Hakuhodo Inc. in Tokyo.

Organisations

If there is one common thread joining my research activities together, it is an interest in moments of transition and the dynamics that accompany them.

Amidst social, technological and economic challenges, I have been particularly intrigued by the governance of new technologies and digital culture, and organizational and micro-level change, especially, at the intersection of commerce and the community.

Currently, I am developing a research track in the ways the web, mobile devices, virtual and augmented reality seem to rescript our nervous system, and change the structure of our brain and challenge functions for empathy and decision-making. I am interested in developing new models of contemporary human online culture. For this purpose, I am working at the intersection of digital culture and neuroscience.

Themes:

  • Digital, cumulative culture & evolution
  • Information repertoires and everyday life
  • Media infrastructures
  • (Transmedia) narratives / storytelling
  • Urban, economic and governance alternative systems

Some keywords to investigate these themes:

Social life development (in individuals, over generations, communities); Digital polarization; Information repertoires (perception and practices in transition); Narrativity; Co-creation; (More-than-human) Ecosystems; Predictive modeling; Niche construction; Active inference; Media studies; User innovation; ...

I welcome PhD + Postdoc enquiries from candidates wishing to pursue projects in the above subject areas.

Publications

2025

Internet appropriation barriers in the lives of Dutch parents living in poverty: A qualitative study (2025)The Information society, 41(3), 195-208. Boerkamp, L. G. P., van der Zeeuw, A., van Deursen, A. J. A. M., van Laar, E. & van der Graaf, S.https://doi.org/10.1080/01972243.2025.2467031Climate change news and doomscrolling: An examination of influencing factors and psychological effects (2025)Acta psychologica, 255. Article 104925. Dominguez-Rodriguez, A., Apprich, F., Friehs, M. A., van der Graaf, S. & Steinrücke, J.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2025.104925

2024

Digital Inclusion Support Needs of Households in Poverty: Insights From Interviews With Dutch Social Workers (2024)International journal of communication, 18, 3855-3872. Article 1932–8036/20240005. Boerkamp, L. G. P., van Deursen, A. J. A. M., van Laar, E., van der Zeeuw, A. & van der Graaf, S.https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/22587/4725Internet appropriation barriers in the lives of Dutch parents living in poverty: A qualitative study (2024)[Contribution to conference › Poster] Eu-SPRI Annual Conference 2024. Boerkamp, L. G. P., van der Zeeuw, A., van Deursen, A. J. A. M., van Laar, E. & van der Graaf, S.Exploring barriers to and outcomes of internet appropriation among households living in poverty: A systematic literature review (2024)SAGE Open, 14(1). Boerkamp, L. G. P., van Deursen, A. J. A. M., van Laar, E., van der Zeeuw, A. & van der Graaf, S.https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440241233047

2023

Leveraging Blockchain for Energy Transition in Urban Contexts (2023)Big Data & Society, 10(2). Montakhabi, M., Madhusudan, A., Mustafa, M. A., Vanhaverbeke, W., Almirall, E. & Graaf, S. V. D.https://doi.org/10.1177/20539517231205503m-RESIST, a Mobile Therapeutic Intervention for Treatment-Resistant Schizophrenia: Feasibility, Acceptability, and Usability Study (2023)JMIR Formative Research, 7. Article e46179. Grasa, E., Seppälä, J., Alonso-Solis, A., Haapea, M., Isohanni, M., Miettunen, J., Mendivelso, J. C., Almazan, C., Rubinstein, K., Caspi, A., Unoka, Z., Farkas, K., Usall, J., Ochoa, S., van der Graaf, S., Jewell, C., Triantafillou, A., Stevens, M., Reixach, E., ā€¦ Corripio, I.https://doi.org/10.2196/46179ā€œGoverning the urban commonsā€: DLT, institutions, and citizens in perspective (2023)Big Data & Society, 10(1). Long, L. A. N., Graaf, S. V. D. & Votsis, A.https://doi.org/10.1177/20539517231182391Valuing the value: An affordances perspective on new models in the electricity market (2023)Energy research & social science, 96. Article 102902. Montakhabi, M., van der Graaf, S. & Mustafa, M. A.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2022.102902A framework for making citizen science inclusive with storytelling methods (2023)Frontiers in Environmental Science, 11, 12. Veeckman, C., Claes, S., van Audenhove, L. & Graaf, S. v. d.https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2023.1211213

Research profiles

Current projects

  • Modellen voor de wisselwerking tussen opinievorming, overheidscommunicatie en pandemieeĢˆn (Models for the interplay of opinion formation, government communication and the spread of pandemics). Grant: ZonMw (2024-2025). Co-appplicant with PI Trapman and MariĆ«lle Stel.
  • Zoek de Verschillen! De rol van zoekcultuur in digitale polarisatie (Search for Differences: The role of search culture in digital polarisation). Grant: SIDN (2023-2025). PI.
  • Wegwijzer Digitaal Burgerschap (2023-2024), consultancy, NHL Stenden.

Current PhD supervision

  • Carina Veeckman; "The democratising effects of citizen science: engaging the public in scientific research" (imec-smit, Vrije Universiteit Brussels; co-promotor, with Leo Van Audenhove) (2023 - present)
  • Lilian Boerkamp; "A multi-step approach toward digital inclusion support for households in poverty" (UT, co-promotor, with Alexander van Deursen) (2022 - present)

Completed PhD supervision

  • Mehdi Montakhabi; "How can digitalization transform an institutionalized industry setting? Emergence and scale-up of business ecoystems in regulated industries"(imec-smit, Vrije Universiteit Brussels; co-promotor, with Pieter Ballon) (May 27, 2024)

Finished projects

  • Digital Polarisation (Dutch Search Experience, partnership with Queensland University of Technology and AWS) (2022). Grant: UT. PI.
  • Prometheus (2021-2023): Grant: EIT-HEI Initiative (EC). Co-applicant with Sjoerd de Vries.
  • Sense-Data-Reflect (Vrije Universiteit Brussels; Global Minds, with University of the Western Cape) (2020 - 2022). PI.

Address

University of Twente

Ravelijn (building no. 10), room 1349
Hallenweg 17
7522 NH Enschede
Netherlands

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