معرفی
Dr. Margaret Cheesman is a Lecturer in Digital Economy at the Department of Digital Humanities. Her research examines digitalization in humanitarian aid, asylum, and welfare, focusing on global governance through ethnographic methods. She investigates web3 technologies like blockchain in contexts involving refugees and aid organizations. Currently, she is working on a book about digital financial aid transformation based on fieldwork in Jordan, and leads the Shadows of the Digital Economy project exploring informal livelihood strategies among non-citizens. She is a Co-Investigator on the Identity and Migration project funded by the Robert Bosch Foundation.
Education: PhD from the Oxford Internet Institute (2022). Professional roles include Assistant Editor of Big Data & Society, and Research Affiliate at the University of Cambridge’s Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy. She collaborates with grassroots organizations like Swansea Asylum Support and academic networks including the European Association of Anthropologists (EASA) and Surveillance Studies Network (SSN).
Research focuses on digital identity, migration governance, and technological ethics. Teaching bridges geopolitical and micro-level analyses of digital economies, emphasizing ethnographic methods and co-produced research with marginalized groups.
Key projects include analyzing blockchain pilots in aid systems, digital wallets for displaced populations, and UN policy consultations. Her work contributes to UN Sustainable Development Goals addressing poverty and inequality through technology critiques.
