Professor Isabella Rega
- Professor in Digital Media for Social Change
- P181 The Loft
- Keywords:
- ICT
- Media and Communication
Biography
Isabella Rega holds a Ph.D. in Communication Sciences and an Executive Master degree in Intercultural Communication from the Università della Svizzera Italiana. She is Professor in Digital Media for Social Change in the Faculty of Media and Communication at Bournemouth University and and co-chair of the Distance Education Working Group of INEE, the Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies. During the past 20 years, she has been investigating the use of digital media to promote social and community development in disadvantaged communities in the Global South. She has written, managed and led an extensive number of competitive research projects funded by National Research Bodies, e.g. the Swiss National Science and Research Foundation, the British Academy, the UK Art and Humanities Council, the European Commission, with a portfolio of 30+ international projects in Africa and Latin America, involving academic, private, public and third sector partners, for an overall budget of more than 4 million euro... She has led and participated in consultancy work for the British Council and the UK Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport and she has served as reviewer for the South Africa’s National Research Foundation and for the UK Newton and Global Challenges Research Fund schemes.
She has extensive experience in the international cooperation sector: in 2006 she co-funded a non-profit organisation, Associazione seed, working on ICT4Education projects; and she has been Global Research Director at Jesuit Worldwide Learning (2019-2023), leading the research efforts of the organisation on the impact of Higher Education on marginalised communities around the globe and on the effectiveness of digital technologies to deliver high-quality educational experiences.
She has published articles in various journals, such as Media and Communication, the Journal of Information, Communication & Ethics in Society, Information, Communication & Society, and Tapuya: Latin American Science, Technology and Society. She co-authored the book South-to-South Communication: Media Activism and Artivism in the Global South with Dr Andrea Medrado, published by Routledge (2023). She serves on the advisory board of the Journal of Media Literacy Education and is a board member of IDIA (International Development Informatics Association) and CIRN (Community Informatics Research Network.
moreResearch
My research focuses on the role digital technologies can play in empowering people and transform communities, understanding the social and cultural dynamics of technological appropriation, and re-invention. To do so I privilege creative participatory methods. At the moment, I am working on two strands of research:
- The challenges to access education for refugees in the Global South, and the role technologies and the arts can play in overcoming these challenges;
- How digital technologies, and new forms of digital storytelling, can be used to understand and reflect on local heritage (including nature and culture) in the light of contemporary mobilities.
Favourites
- ISABELLA, A.R.M. and Rega, I., 2023. Media Activism, Artivism and the Fight Against Marginalisation in the Global South South-To-South Communication. Routledge.
- Rega, I. and Medrado, A., 2023. The Stepping into Visibility Model: reflecting on consequences of social media visibility–a Global South perspective. Information Communication and Society, 26 (2), 405-424.
- Sarrica, M., Rega, I., Inversini, A. and Norton, L.S., 2021. Slumming on social media? E-mediated tourist gaze and social representations of indian, south african, and brazilian slum tourism destinations. Societies, 11 (3).
- Rega, I. and Vannini, S., 2018. Public access venues and community empowerment in Mozambique: A social representation study. Semiotica, 2018 (223), 199-217.
- Vannini, S., Rega, I. and Cantoni, L., 2013. Information and Communication Flows through Community Multimedia Centers: Perspectives from Mozambican Communities. Information Technology for Development, 0, 1-14.
- Rega, I., Vannini, S., Raimilla, M. and Fauró, L., 2013. Telecentres and Mobile: an initial overview. Available from: http://seedlearn.org/telecentres-and-mobile-technologies-global-pilot-study/.
- Rega, I., Vannini, S., Fino, E. and Cantoni, L., 2013. Exploring the Meanings of Community Multimedia Centers in Mozambique: A Social Representation Perspective. Information Technologies & International Development, 9, pp-35.
- Cantoni, L., Fanni, F., Rega, I. and Tardini, S., 2009. Fostering Digital Literacy of Primary Teachers in Community Schools: The BET K-12 Experience in Salvador de Bahia. In: Marshall, S., Kinuthia, W. and Taylor, W., eds. Bridging the Knowledge Divide. IAP.