Dr Esperanza Miyake

Personal statement

I specialise in the critical analysis of gender, race and digital media/technology. My current interdisciplinary research examines this intersection from the perspective of digital justice and equality, looking at apps, A.I./smart tech, social media and other technopractices in everyday life that oppress, marginalise and otherwise disadvantage minority groups. Related to this area of research, 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 recent funded projects (including a British Academy/Leverhulme project) have been in the area of digital disconnection, opt-out and the politics of resistance. My latest book (with Adi Kuntsman) on this subject is entitled, Paradoxes of Digital Disengagement: In Search of the Opt-out button (2022), and an edited collection (with Adi Kuntsman and Sam 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. I have a forthcoming third monograph, Virtual Influencers: Identity and Digitality in the Age of Multiple Realities (Routledge) which looks at the intersection of virtual influencers (including AI influencers), technology and identity 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 within the context of the US, 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 Scottish Government's Independent Expert Group, working on the Unlocking the Value of Scotland's Public Sector Personal Data Programme (2022-23). Similarly, my digital health research which has led me to be part of the Scottish Parliament's Scottish Long Covid Cross-Party Group

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

I am currently Chair of the EDI committee for the Humanities, and the Faculty (Humanities and Social Sciences) 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).