Annette N. Markham

Annette N. Markham is former co-director of DERC and Adjunct Professor of Media and Communication in the College of Design and Social Contexts at RMIT University.

Professor Markham is internationally recognised for developing epistemological frameworks for rethinking ethics and research methods for digitally-saturated social contexts. A long-time member of the internet research community, Annette conducts ethnographic studies and arts-based interventions to critically explore how identity, relationships, and cultural formations are constructed in and influenced by digitally saturated socio-technical contexts.

Her ethnographic studies of identity practices and cultural formations through digital media are well represented in her pioneering book Life Online: Researching real experience in virtual space (1998, Alta Mira). Her more recent research focuses on critical approaches to algorithms and datafication, speculative methods for building better ethical futures, data literacy and critical pedagogy, and rhetorical analysis of human-machine communication through automated, algorithmic systems.

Her writing can be found in numerous books and articles. She was principle investigator of Creating Future Heritage project, which hosted various Museum of Random Memory arts-based digital literacy events. She founded and directs the Skagen Institute, which hosts an annual conference on transgressive methods, and she is founder of the international Future Making Research Consortium. She co-directs STEEM, an international Centre for the Study of Technological, Emerging, and Ethical Methods, with Assoc Prof Pablo Velasco at Aarhus University.

Professor Markham is originally from the U.S and earned her PhD in organisational communication and interpretive research methodologies from Purdue University. She holds bachelor and master degrees in human communication studies.

More information, links to publications, CV, and details about her research and ongoing projects can be found at annettemarkham.com. Also found on Mastodon.social :

Labs

Method Lab 

DERC's flagship space for testing innovative methods for studying data, digital culture, and disruptive tech.

Digital Domesticity, Sustainability, and the Everyday

Digital Domesticity, Sustainability, and the Everyday examines the role of everyday life practices and homes as increasingly central hubs of digital engagement and smart infrastructure.

Automation and Social Futures

Automation and Social Futures engages with the ethical, political, social, organisational, cultural and governance implications of machine learning, algorithmic decision-making and digital infrastructures.

Creativity, Learning, Digital Arts, and Design

Creativity, Learning, Digital Arts, and Design positions research participants as ‘creative agents’ and authors of their own experience.

Digital Inclusion, Mobility, and Activism

The research program examines the challenges and potentials of digital participation as this relates to access and inclusion, connectivity, networks and political activism, gig or micro work, and mobility and migration.

Projects

Methods Masterclass Series

Methods Masterclass Series 2023 offers advanced training in creative practice, digital ethnographic, and social science tools. Co sponsored by the Enabling Impact Platforms at RMIT.

News

Large and Small Scales

October 25, 2022

how do we use interdisciplinary thinking to preserve macro plus micro scales in data science?

Layered Frameworks

October 3, 2022

What unlearning and relearning is involved in making interdisciplinarity really work, especially in team environments?

MAPPING MOODS FOR FUTURE CITIES

September 15, 2022

Are you interested? Please let us know if you would like to participate in a ‘Mapping Moods for Future Cities’ workshop, an initiative to explore how the maps of our...

Diverse Knowledges — Hidden Voices

July 5, 2022

anything we call "interdisciplinarity" will include diverse ways of knowing, which means bring many voices to projects, from the outset.