ABOUT ME
I am an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto Institute of Communication, Culture, Information and Technology. I currently serve as Special Advisor for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, Office of the Vice-Principal, University of Toronto Mississauga. I hold a Graduate Appointment at the Faculty of Information where I teach graduate classess and supervise graduate students.
I study power, privilege, and oppression in relation to media and technology. My qualitative research draws on postcolonial and feminist theory and methods. I focus on dynamics of power as they play out across difference like gender, race, and class. I work predominantly in the context of migration, with a focus on refugees in camps and in resettlement.
Additionally, I am interested to connect with and am available for consultancies focused on refugee education and technology, critical media education, and more broadly to support researchers building participatory and anti-oppressive research programs and seeking guidance in these domains.
Negin Dahya
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
ACADEMIC PUBLICATIONS
Published Journal Articles (Peer Reviewed)
Dahya, N., Garrido, M., Wedlake, S., Yefimova, K. & Iqbal, M. (2023). Learning Technology Systems in Everyday Life: Women’s Experiences Navigating Refugee Resettlement in the United States. Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/15562948.2023.2237429
Arvisais, O., Dahya, N., Decarpentrie, L., & Dedeoglu, C. (2023). Apprendre en autonomie dans les camps de réfugiés: Perspectives communautaires sur l’enseignement, l’apprentissage et la technologie. (2023). Submitted to Canadian Journal of Development Studies / Revue canadienne d’études du développement.
Dahya, N., Roldan, W.*, Lee, J. H., Yip, J., Luke, J., Joya, A.*, Summerlin, E.*, & Patino-Liu, D. M.* (2022) Virtual reality and youth incarceration: Methodological reflections from a media education & research program. Canadian Journal of Communication.
Dahya, N., Arvisais O., Decarpentrie, L.*, & Dedeoglu, C. E.* (2022). Ethics, Power and Agency in Transnational Qualitative Methods: A Case Study in Remote and Participatory Collaboration with Refugees. Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences conference proceedings.
Dahya, N., King, W.E., Lee, K.J., & Lee, J.H. (2021). Perceptions and experiences of Virtual Reality in Public Libraries. Journal of Documentation, 77(3), 617-637
Dahya, N. & King, W.E. (2020). Politics of Race, Gender, and Visual Representation in Feminist Media Education. Discourse: Studies in The Cultural Politics of Education, 41(5), 673-690.
Dahya, N. Dryden-Peterson, S., Douhaibi, D. & Arvisais, O. (2019) Social Support Networks, Instant Messaging, and Gender Equity in Refugee Education. Information, Communication & Society, 22(6), 774-790.
Dryden-Peterson, S., Dahya, N. and Adelman, E. (2017). Pathways to educational success among refugees: Connecting locally and globally-situated resources. American Educational Research Journal, 54(6), 1011-1047.
Dahya, N. and Dryden-Peterson, S. (2017). Tracing pathways to higher education for refugees: the role of virtual support networks and mobile phones for women in refugee camps. Comparative Education, 53(2), 284-301.
Dahya, N., Jenson, J. and Fong, K. (2017). (En)Gendering videogame development: a feminist approach to gender, education & game studies. Review of Education, Pedagogy & Culture, 39(4), 367-390.
Dussel, I. & Dahya, N. (2017) Introduction: problematizing voice and representation in youth media production. Special Issue: Voice and Representation in Youth Media Production in Educational Settings: Transnational Dialogues. Learning, Media & Technology, 42(1), 1-7.
Dahya, N. (2017). Critical perspectives in youth digital media production: ‘voice’ and representation in educational contexts. Learning, Media & Technology, 42(1), 100-111.
Barkaoui, K., Barrett, S. E., Samaroo, J., Dahya, N., Alidina, S. & James, C. (2015). Teachers’ conceptions of student engagement in learning: the case of three urban schools. Alberta Journal of Educational Research, 61(1), 1-20.
Dahya, N. & Jenson, J. (2015). Mis/representations in school based digital media: an ethnographic study with Muslim Girls. Diaspora, Minority & Indigenous Education: Studies in Migration, Integration, Equity & Cultural Survival, 9(2), 108-123.
Samaroo, J., Dahya, N., Alidina, S. (2013). Exploring the challenges of conducting respectful research: The seen and unforeseen methodological factors within urban school research. Canadian Journal of Education/Revue canadienne de l’éducation, 36(3), 438-457.
Jenson, J., Dahya, N. & Fisher, S. (2014). Valuing Production Values: A 'Do It Yourself' Media Production Club. Learning, Media & Technology, 39(2), 215-228.
Dahya, N. (2009). Serious Learning in Playful Roles: Socio-political games for education. Loading, 3(4).
RECENT RESEARCH PROJECTS
Collaborative Decision-Making in Refugee Camps: Community Engagement in Education & Technology (2024-2028).
The focus of this project is to understand decision-making practices related to education and technology programs available to refugees in refugee camps. The study involves interviewing NGO staff and administrators as well as community members who participate in programs, to understand the intersection of decision-making and programmatic interests in education and technology programs.
Portraits of Educational Change: Redefining Pedagogy and Technology in Refugee Camps (2020-2024)
This study is focused on understanding the role of technology in the lives of refugees living in Dzaleka Refugee Camps, Malawi, Specifically, the study has engaged in ethnographically informed research methods including observations, visual data collection, and interviews. The study is focused on three settings: computer classes, sewing classes, and music production and DJing in the camps. Our team involves Community Researchers in the Dzaleka Refugee Camps in Malawi as research partners and all data and partnership has been managed remotely and using sometimes novel digital data collection techniques.
Resilience at the crossroads: a techno-feminist approach to intergenerational culture preservation through social storytelling and sense-making within displaced populations (2022-2024)
This project will engage immigrant families across generations to understand the role of technology as a mediator for cultural preservation across children and grandparents, across language, and across place. Participants will be based in Toronto, Canada and in some cases, with participating family members living elsewhere in the world.
The Re(Formation) of Race in Refugee Resettlement: Understanding Race in Forced Migration, Media & Technology (2022)
This project explores the role of technology use to inform and (re)form identity among forced migrant communities throughout their migration and now living in Toronto, Ontario. The project explores how representations of communities online, accessible in different places at different times, informs participants sense of self and their communities. The project addresses how understandings of surveillance, privacy, and security online impact participation and what this means for racial identity formation during migration and among forced migrant communities. The is based on qualitative interviews with resettled refugees and other forced migrants groups in Toronto, Canada.
CONSULTING
I am available for consultancy work in two forms:
1. I am available for research and writing projects related to my areas of expertise, such as writing commissioned reports on refugee education and technology or on anti-oppressive curriculum in media education.
2. I am also available to support research groups in their work to building anti-oppressive research practices at the levels of team preparation and practices as well as within qualitative and ethnographically informed research studies, particularly those working with non-dominant communities.
For rates, examples of past work, and discussion of potential projects, please contact me directly at negin.dahya@utoronto.ca