OxHRH Communications Director, Dr Kira Allmann, has been awarded a three-year Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Media Law and Policy in the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies at the University of Oxford.

Kira completed her DPhil in Oriental Studies (Islamic World) at the University of Oxford, where her research explored the role of the internet in the Egyptian revolution. Her ethnographic research revealed how youth mobility in Cairo between online and offline spaces constituted tacit forms of resistance, transforming both the physical and virtual geography of the city. In her research fellowship, Kira will be starting a new independent research project examining how different internet ownership models enable or curtail the realization of fundamental human rights. As part of this project, Kira will be studying how people at the margins of the web create innovative solutions to achieve internet access — such as ‘community networks’ — built, administered, and maintained by local communities. She is also interested in how these solutions respond to the environmental impact of internet technology. Kira’s work aims to provide empirical insights about alternative infrastructural, regulatory, and political answers to the digital divide in order to inform human and environmental rights in policy and practice.

Kira joined the OxHRH team when she co-created the OxHRH RightsUp podcast series, which she continues to produce. As OxHRH Communications Director, she has played a central role developing the OxHRH communications portfolio, from our flagship website to our innovative webinars, our recent online course on the right to education, and our publications, including our new open access journal.

Congratulations, Kira!