The DAT ACT lab was founded in 2020 by Dr. Venetia Papa and its mission is to contribute to the study of new media, journalism, activism and beyond.
The team
Venetia Papa is a Lecturer in Journalism and Media Studies of the University of Cyprus. She has received her Ph.D. in Communication and Internet Studies from the Cyprus University of Technology (CUT) and her MA and BA from the University of Nice Sophia Antipolis in France. Her doctoral dissertation investigated the potential in both meaning and practices of ICT-mediated social movements and identified the meanings of active citizenship today within the contours of social movement activity. From 2010 to 2018 she was employed at the Cyprus University of Technology as a Research Associate. She has published several scientific articles in refereed journals in the field of Media and Communication studies such as the European Journal of Communication and the Information, Communication, and Society. She is the co-author of the book Mobilisations numeriques: Politiques du conflit et technologies mediatiques (Les Presses des Mines, 2017). Read more…
Dr. Theodoros Kouros is a post-doctoral researcher at the DAT-ACT lab, specializing in the study of the everyday state, strategies and tactics, immigration, nationalism, as well as space and place. His studies include a BA in Sociology (University of Crete), an MA in Social Anthropology (University of Ioannina), and a Ph.D. in Sociology (University of Cyprus). He has participated in numerous research projects and has published his work in journals and edited volumes.
Dr. Maria Ioannou joined the University of Cyprus as a Special Scientist in Sociology in September 2020. She holds a BA in Sociology and a minor degree in Politics, alongside a MA in Social and Political Theory from the University of Cyprus. She received her doctorate from the same University, in February 2020. Her research interests lie in the fields of social movements, political change, collective action, new media, and democracy. She has written a number of book chapters, relevant to her scientific background, and published for instance by the Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Her forthcoming articles (year 2021) will be published in the European Journal of Communication and in the Information, Communication, and Society. She is currently participating in a number of research projects, exploring primarily the rise of several contemporary types of protest activities, especially in Europe.
Vyronas Kapnisis is a research associate at the Department of Social & Political Sciences, University of Cyprus. He received his MA in Social and Political Theory from the University of Birmingham, with a dissertation on the notion of domination in the work of Herbert Marcuse, and BA in Sociology from the University of Bradford, with a dissertation on New Social Movements and the transition to late modernity – both in the UK. His research interests revolve around the sociopolitical transformations effected by the transition from early to late modernity, Neoliberalism and construction of subjectivities in the current era, and the work of the Frankfurt school of thought.
Paris Demetriades is a graduate of Humanities and Social Sciences (MSc) with a decade long work experience in journalism. He specifically holds a History degree from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, a Masters degree in European Studies from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) as well as a Diploma on Freedom and Pluralism of Traditional and New Media from European University Institute, Florence. Throughout his 11-year career he has served as a Web Editor in established Cyprus based media as well as a TV journalist and presenter. He has gained valuable experience as an Editor in Chief whereas he has also worked as a personal media officer for a political campaign and as a Teacher Assistant in the University of Cyprus Journalism Department. More recently, he has participated as an External Research Associate on an academic paper on Facebook and Google News.
DAT-ACT lab 