Founder and Principal Investigator
Sahana Udupa is Professor of Media Anthropology at the University of Munich (LMU Munich) and Founder of the Center for Digital Dignity. She is currently directing an ERC consolidator project on small social media platforms.
Postdoctoral/PhD Researchers, Research Associates
Doctoral candidate (affiliated project)
Mariana Arjona Soberón, studied sociocultural anthropology at Yale University in the USA, followed by an interdisciplinary master’s degree in environmental sciences at the University of Cologne. She was born and raised in Mexico and has been touring the world through academia.
Computer Science Research Assistant
Philip Baader is a computer science research assistant at For Digital Dignity, Project ONLINERPOL. He has received a B.A. in Philosophy from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich, where he is currently pursuing a B.A. in Computational Linguistics as well.
Research Associate
Christiane Bayer is a doctoral candidate of German Linguistics at Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich and an associate at LMU Center for Digital Humanities (ITG). Her research focuses on (digital) Lexicography, Corpus Linguistics and Language Variation.
Doctoral Researcher
Gemechu Bekele Lemu is a doctoral candidate at LMU Munich. His current scholarly pursuits are dedicated to an investigation of freedom of expression, offering a distinctive scholarly lens through examination of the Oromo proverbs of Ethiopia.
Research Associate
Laura Csuka is a research associate at For Digital Dignity. After receiving her master’s degree in Cultural Anthropology from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich, she is currently pursuing doctoral research in computer science at the University of Oxford.
Postdoc Researcher for SMALL PLATFORMS
Research Associate
Miriam Homer is a research associate at the For Digital Dignity research program. She has received her B.A. in Cultural Anthropology from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich, where she is currently pursuing her M.A. in the same field with focus on Visual Anthropology.
Postdoctoral Researcher
Jayana Jain has completed her PhD in English and Cultural Studies at the University of Münster as a member of the Graduate School Practices of Literature (GSPoL).
Doctoral Researcher
Byron Jones is a doctoral researcher of Digital Anthropology at LMU München. His ethnographic research in both the digital and analog realms analyzes and identifies concepts of dynamic dimensions found in migration and identity.
Project & Social Media Manager for SMALL PLATFORMS
Felix Keilhack is a masters student in social anthropology at LMU Munich and social media and project manager for the ERC SMALLPLATFORMS project. His research interests are digital anthropology, artificial intelligence & its supply chain, platform capitalism and the generative process of creativity for AI & Humans.
Postdoctoral Researcher
Max Kramer is currently working on a post-doctoral research project within ONLINERPOL at the Ludwigs Maximilians University, Munich. He has received training in Modern South Asian Languages and Literatures and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Heidelberg, where he was awarded his Magister Artium.
Postdoctoral Researcher
Oeendrila Lahiri is a post-doctoral researcher in the BIDT funded project on online misogyny, LMU Munich. Her training is interdisciplinary, with a focus on gender studies and postcolonial studies .
NLP Research Associate
Antonis Maronikolakis is an NLP research associate in the ERC Proof of Concept Project AI4Dignity. He is a PhD student at the Center for Information and Language Processing in LMU, where he is working on the intersection of Natural Language Processing and Deep Learning.
Ananya Mehra
Research Associate
Ananya Mehra is a research associate at the For Digital Dignity research program. She has received a M.A. in Political Science from LMU Munich, where she is currently pursuing a M.A. in Social Anthropology.
Postdoc Researcher for SMALL PLATFORMS
Job Mwaura is is a postdoctoral researcher in the ERC SMALLPLATFORMS project, LMU Munich, investigating Extreme Speech in Kenya. His research focuses on digital media studies in Africa, with an emphasis on digital platforms, AI ethics, digital activism, and the societal impact of emerging technologies.
Doctoral Researcher
Leah Nann is a Doctoral Researcher and Research Associate of Media Anthropology at LMU Munich. She is a team member of the ERC funded proof of concept project ‘AI4Dignity’ and the bidt project ‘Understanding, detecting, and mitigating online misogyny against politically active women’.
Student Research Assistant
Pranav Ragupathy is currently pursuing his Masters in Data Science from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. He previously completed a Bachelor’s in Computer Science & Entrepreneurial Leadership. A majority of his work experience has been in the field of Machine Learning and its closely related applications.
Postdoc Researcher for SMALL PLATFORMS
Craig Ryder is a postdoctoral researcher in the ERC SMALLPLATFORMS project, LMU Munich, investigating Extreme Speech in UK. He is a digital anthropologist whose interests include the platformisation of information, emergent applications of AI, and digital research methodologies.
Postdoc Researcher for SMALL PLATFORMS
Ira Solomatina is a Postdoc Researcher is a postdoctoral researcher in the ERC SMALLPLATFORMS project, LMU Munich, investigating Extreme Speech in Germany. Ira’s research focuses on how media shapes and entrenches performances and understandings of gender, the political implications of affective patterns online, and misogyny online.
Research Associate
Naemi Stolte is a research associate the For Digital Dignity research project. She is pursuing her B.A. in Cultural Anthropology at Ludwig-Maximilians-University. Her research interest is focused on urban anthropology and feminism in Brazil.
Data Science Research Associate
Axel Wisiorek is a data science research associate in the ERC Proof of Concept Project AI4Dignity, LMU Munich. Currently, he is working as a research associate at the Center for Information and Language Processing (CIS) and at LMU Center for Digital Humanities (ITG), where he is involved in the development of various web-based research projects in the field of Digital Humanities.
India fieldwork partners/fellows
Memes Project Fellow
Krishanu Bhargav Neog is a Ph.D. student at the Centre for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University. His research looks into the question of the political ‘subject’ (and ‘subject’-formation) online through everyday techno-social and techno-cultural practices such as ‘lurking’ and circulation of memes.
Field Research Partner
Sayan is a media practitioner, researcher and design enthusiast. He has made two documentaries as a part of the Master’s program he completed at the School of Media and Culture Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, India.
Field Research Partner
Deeksha M Rao holds a Bachelor’s degree in Science from Mount Carmel College,Bengaluru and a Master’s degree in Public Policy from National Law School of India University, Bengaluru. Her first transition from a pure science background to the world of policy started with a restless passion and a policy-engagement internship with Centre of Study of Science, Technology and Policy.
Field Research Partner
A self-taught ethnographer, Sudha has spent a decade in education associated with Azim Premji University. As an active participant researcher on various anthropological studies, she has documented the regulation and monitoring system at block offices in urban and rural Bangalore, the lives of head teachers in government schools.
LMU partners
LMU Munich Partner
Thomas Hanitzsch is Chair and Professor of Communication at LMU Munich where he is currently Research Director in the Department of Communication Studies and Media Research. A former journalist, his teaching and research focuses on global journalism cultures, war coverage, celebrity news and comparative methodology.
LMU Munich Partner
Frank Heidemann is Professor at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology at LMU Munich. His research interests include visual anthropology, social aesthetics, the anthropology of the senses, postcolonial studies, political anthropology, and anthropological theory. He has regional interests in South India (especially Tamil Nadu, Nilgiris), the Andaman Islands, and Sri Lanka.
AI4Dignity Expert Group Member
Stephan Luecke is a member of the expert group in the ERC Proof of Concept Project AI4Dignity. He is the deputy head of the LMU Center for Digital Humanities. In the past 15 years he has focused on the field of corpus linguistics with a particular interest in geolinguistics. Since 2014 he is one of the two heads of the DFG funded longterm project VerbaAlpina. He studied Classics and received his PhD in Ancient History.
LMU Partner, Project AI4Dignity
Hinrich Schütze is the principal LMU partner for the AI4Dignity Project. He is the Chair of Computational Linguistics and Director of the Center for Information and Language Processing at LMU Munich. Selected publications are available here.
LMU Munich Partner
Martin Soekefeld is Professor and Head of Department of the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology at LMU Munich. His research interests include the anthropology of politics, “natural” disasters, migration, diaspora and transnationalism, theory of identity, Islam, and Alevism.
Administration
Administrative Coordinator
Ilona Spalinger is the administrative coordinator at the office of Prof Udupa, and financial administrator for the ERC SMALLPLATFORMS project and other projects of the Center for Digital Dignity, LMU Munich. She has six years of experience as a secretary at the Institute of Near Eastern Archaeology at the LMU, over ten in accounting and is a certified interpreter and translator in English, Spanish and French.
Consultants/Collaborators
External Consultant for Data Science and NLP
Abhineet Basan is an external consultant for Data Science and NLP in the ERC Proof of Concept Project AI4Dignity. An Analytics and Big Data practitioner, he is also interested in implementing AI solutions that create a positive impact on society.
Podcast Collaborator
Ian Cook runs the podcast at For Digital Dignity, Project ONLINERPOL. He is also a Research Fellow at the Center for Media, Data and Society at the School of Public Policy at Central European University (CEU), Budapest, Hungary.
Designer and Editor, Digital Dignity Film Project
Policy Consultant, AI4Dignity Project
Web Editor & Designer
Dorothy Lineer is Web Editor & Designer at For Digital Dignity, Project ONLINERPOL, managing the website and social media. She has several years of experience in digital communications and marketing in the public, private, and non-profit sectors.
Humboldt Fellow (Independent Project)
Vita Peacock was a visiting Humboldt Fellow (2019). She is currently leading an ERC starting grant project at King’s College London. She is a co-operation partner at the Center for Digital Dignity.
Visiting Fellow (Independent Project)
K. Zeynep Sarıaslan is a visiting postdoctoral researcher at Project ONLINERPOL LMU Munich and the Leibniz-Centre for Modern Oriental Studies in Berlin.