Dr Zoetanya Sujon

Biography

Dr Zoetanya Sujon is a Reader and Programme Director in Communications and Media at London College of Communication. Zoetanya is a passionate educator and researcher, bringing her enthusiasm for knowledge and a learner-oriented and research informed pedagogic style to the classroom and curriculum development.

Originally trained as a sociologist and anthropologist, Zoetanya draws from an interdisciplinary lens and her research broadly addresses the relationships between social technologies and everyday life. Zoetanya’s recent work examines social technologies from many perspectives including:

- Social media
- Affordances, digital cultures and everyday life
- Communication rights and data justice
- Data research methods and tools
- Digital futures and forecasting
- Dataveillance, privacy, and visibility
- Emerging technologies
- Platforms, big tech, and communications organizations
- Social credit, fintech and digital currencies
- TikTok, creators and data selfies

Before joining LCC in 2018, Zoetanya was a Senior Lecturer in Media and Communications at Regent’s University London (2010-2018). Zoetanya completed her PhD in Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science, where she was also an LSE Fellow, lecturer, and research officer for the LSE Media Policy Project (2004-20010). Zoetanya has taught and studies at many universities across the world, including Carleton University, London School of Economics and Political Science, Goldsmiths University, Birkbeck, University of London, Glasgow University, Universitiet van Amsterdam, and Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson).

From 2023-2024, Zoetanya leads the AHRC funded project 'Transforming the Gap: Inclusive Digital Arts and Humanities Research Skills (DAReS)' as Principal Investigator, working with co-investigators from UAL (Anna Troisi, Maitrayee Basu, Nessa Keddo), Roehampton University (Gauti Sigthorsson), and Wikimedia UK and CRAC/Vitae as partners (AHRC Reference: AH/X007510/1). Taking a co-design approach with under-represented and marginalised arts and humanities, the project aims to understand and develop an inclusive data skills curriculum for a scalable regional or national pilot. The project aims to maximise digital research innovation in the UK and is part of the UKRI's digital research infrastructures initiative.

Zoetanya is also the UK's Key Regional Leader of the TikTok Research Cultures Network, based in Curtin University and the Asia Pacific region. This invited and honorary role stems from her interests in the intersections between social media and screen industries, as well as emerging formats, affordances, and new cultural forms. In addition, Zoetanya is the co-director of the Digital Cultures and Economies Research Hub, based in the Communications and Media programme which aims to consolidate current research across LCC in this area as well as build digital research networks externally and across UAL.

Drawing from multiple research projects, Zoetanya's first book, 'The Social Media Age' (Sage 2021), examines the impact of platforms across social, economic and cultural spheres (Sage, 2021).

Zoetanya is committed to supporting pst-graduate (PGRs) and early career researchers (ECRs) in their professional development. As an experienced PhD supervisor, Zoetanya is keen to hear from prospective PhD researchers focusing on social technologies, digital media, and data-based enquiries to everyday life.