Dr Esperanza Miyake

Personal statement

I specialise in the interdisciplinary and critical analysis of gender, race and digital media/technology. My current research examines this intersection from the perspective of digital justice and equality, looking at A.I. and algorithmic decision-making, social media and other technopractices in everyday life that oppress, marginalise and otherwise disadvantage minority groups. Related to these issues, I am currently co-leading (with Angela Daly) a Scottish Universities Insight Institute (SUII) funded project, Valuing Public Sector Data in Scotland and Europe: Data Governance for Economic, Environmental and Social Development.

Other related funded projects (e.g. British Academy/Leverhulme, EPSRC) have examined digital disconnection, opt-out and the politics of resistance. I have a wide range of publications in this area, including a co-authored book, Paradoxes of Digital Disengagement: In Search of the Opt-Out Button (2022)(w/ A Kuntsman), and a co-edited collection (w/A Kuntsman and S Martin), Digital Disengagement: COVID-19, Digital Justice and the Politics of Refusal (2023).

My other main area of research examines gender, race and digitality/technology in relation to represenations in media, culture and society. My third monograph, Virtual Influencers: Identity and Digitality in the Age of Multiple Realities (forthcoming, Routledge) examines virtual and AI influencers as technologies in the context of digital culture, society and economy. My previous monograph, The Gendered Motorcycle: Representations in Society, Media and Popular Culture (2018) politicises representations of technology in film, advertising, television and anime/manga in the USA, the UK and Japan. 

I have collaborated with external partners from private, public and third sectors. For example, I am currently a member of Ofcom's Making Sense of Media Research Working Group, and have also been part of the Independent Expert Group for the Scottish Government's Unlocking the Value of Scotland's Public Sector Personal Data Programme (2022-23). I am also part of the Scottish Parliament's Scottish Long Covid Cross-Party Group (2021-present)

My research-informed outputs in international media outlets include articles written for The New York Times, Newsweek Japan and The Conversation. I have also appeared as a guest on the BBC 10 o'clock News, BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio Scotland. 

I am currently Chair of the Humanities EDI committee, and the Faculty representative for the University's Racial Equity and Anti-Racism Steering Group. Previously, I was Director of Postgraduate Research for the Humanities (2021-23), and sat on the School Ethics Committee (2020-22).