Dr. Bahareh Heravi is a Reader (Professor) in AI and Media at the Institute for People-Centred AI at the University of Surrey. In her research, she focuses, among other topics, on the use of AI in journalism and AI, data storytelling and Data & Computational Journalism.

Furthermore, Bahareh is a founding co-chair of the European Data & Computational Journalism Conference, acts as an expert evaluator and a project monitor for the European Commission and the Research Data Alliance, serves on the EDI Advisory Committee of the Royal Statistical Society, and she sits on the Irish Government’s Open Data Governance Board.

Prior to her current position at the University of Surrey, Bahareh was an assistant professor at the UCD School of Information and Communication Studies. At UCD, she was the founding director of UCD Data Journalism Programme. Before becoming an academic, she worked for over 10 years in the industry.

Bahareh was selected as one of Silicon Republic’s Sci-Tech 100, and was named one of “22 high-flying scientists making the world a better place” in 2019.

Dr. Tijana Milosevic is an Elite-S Post-Doctoral Research Fellow (MSCA COFUND programme), jointly appointed with DCU Anti-Bullying Centre and ADAPT SFI, focusing on social media policies and digital media use among children and youth.” She is also a member of the EU Kids Online Kids research network.

Futher, she has been the PI on a Facebook-funded project “Co-designing with Children: A Rights-based approach to fighting Cyberbullying”.

Her research interests are, among other subjects: cyberbullying, digital media, privacy and digital wellbeing.

She has authored and co- authored a number of articles on children’s media use and other topics. Her first monograph Protecting Children Online? Cyberbullying Policies of Social Media Companies” was published in The MIT Press Information Society Series.

 

Dr. Niamh Kirk is a lecturer in the School of English, Irish and Communications at the Univeristy of Limerick. Prior to that, she was appointed as Newman Fellow in Digital Policy. Her research interests are focused on the intersection of digital media and information infrastructure for democracies. Specifically, she examines digital political marketing, online political communities and mobilisations and information flows. She often adopts a transnational lens to identify how development in digital media can disconnect and disenfranchise migrant communities. She specialises in hybrid methodologies that blend quantitative and qualitative methods. 

Niamh won the Vincent (Vinny) Doyle Perpetual Trophy for her masters in Digital Media and Journalism at the Independent College Dublin while working as a journalist. Then, she received an Irish Research Council Postgraduate Scholarship to pursue a PhD in digital diaspora journalism. She led the ElectCheck, which evaluates transparency in political advertising as well as the Code Check projects, examining platform compliance with the Code of Practice in Disinformation. She has previously led the Digital News Report Ireland. 

After completing her PhD, she started working as a research assistant at the Institute for Future Media, Democracy and Society, where she led projects on political advertising and platform compliance as well as several annual Digital News Reports. Prior to her appointment as the Newman Fellow, she was a postdoctoral researcher on the RePAST project, which explored post conflict societies and European integration. She sits on the advisory board of the Journal of Global Media and Diaspora (JGMD). 

 

Recent publications:

Kirk, N., Farries, E., & Siapera, E. (2023). Public Perceptions of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence Regulation. UCD Centre for Digital Policy

Kirk, N., Teeling, L. (2022). A review of political advertising online during the 2019 European Elections and establishing future regulatory        requirements in Ireland. Irish Political Studies, 27(1), 85-102

Siapera, E., Kirk, N., & Doyle, K. (2019). Netflix and Binge? Exploring New Cultures of Media Consumption. Broadcasting Authority of Ireland