The ReWorkChange project is based at the Visual and Digital Cultures Research Centre (ViDi) within the Department of Communication Studies.
Principal Investigator:
Elisabetta Costa (she/her) is a digital anthropologist. Her research focuses on how people’s everyday uses of media technologies change relationships, gender, politics, work, and mobility. She has conducted extensive fieldwork in Lebanon, southeast Turkey, and Italy. Her books include Social Media in Southeast Turkey (2016, UCL Press), How the World Changed Social Media (with Miller D. et al., 2016, UCL Press), and the Routledge Companion to Media Anthropology (co-edited with Lange P. G, Haynes N., and Sinanan J., 2022, Routledge).
Postdoctoral Researchers:
Aleksandra (Ola) Gracjasz (she/her) holds a PhD in Cultural Anthropology from Leiden University and Master's in Cultural Anthropology from Utrecht University. Her PhD formed part of the ERC-funded Food Citizens? project led by Prof. dr. Cristina Grasseni, in which Ola has carried out fieldwork in Gdańsk, Poland, looking at contemporary forms of citizenship enacted and manifested through involvement in a food-related network. Through her doctoral and master's research she has integrated photographic practices and theories. In the ReWorkChange project, Ola will carry out ethnographic research in Brussels, Belgium.
Xiaolin Li is a digital anthropologist. Li’s research explores how digital technologies and material practices shape gender, embodiment, intimacy, and social change in contemporary China. Li completed a PhD in Digital Anthropology at UCL, which examined how FemTech is designed and used within broader practices of menstruation, sexuality, and medicine. As part of the ERC project ReWorkChange, Remote Work and Social Change at the University of Antwerp, Li is currently conducting ethnographic research on how remote work is reshaping everyday life in China.
Iris Pakulla (she/her) is an anthropologist and filmmaker of Spanish, French, German and Polish heritage. She studied social anthropology in the UK and media communication studies and documentary cinema in Spain and France, respectively. She has over 10 years' professional experience in the documentary film sector. Her new research is taking place in Mexico as part of the ERC project, ReWorkChange. During her PhD at the University of Cambridge, which involved fieldwork in Mongolia, she focused on topics such as extractivism, the anthropology of labour, digital political activism, everyday politics, and female reproductive health.
PhD Candidates:
Elif Hazal Gougler (she/her) is an anthropologist and project manager from Istanbul. She studied Management of Performing Arts at Istanbul Bilgi University and later completed a joint MA program in Social Anthropology at the University of Bern and the University of Vienna. With professional experience in documentary production for international media networks and in EU research coordination at Kadıköy Municipality, her work explores mass communication and digital media, focusing on how media are created and adapted for specific communities, particularly women. In the ReWorkChange project, Elif Hazal will carry out ethnographic research in Istanbul, Türkiye.
Hitesh (they/them/he/him) is a PhD scholar at the University of Antwerp’s Faculty of Social Sciences, researching digital transitions in the ERC project ReWorkChange. Their anthropological interest lies at the intersection of science, technology, and socio-politics. They hold an MSc in Social and Cultural Anthropology (KU Leuven, Belgium +NTNU, Norway) and a BA in Foreign Languages and Intercultural Studies (Manipal University, India). As a first-generation graduate, queer, and migrant, they somehow conducted ethnographic research in India and EUrope and contribute(d) to EU-funded projects. In their free time, they try to write poetry, do sports, and organise anti-colonial, anti-racist projects. You can learn more about their work at Post-Anthro-Apologist.
Fiona Holdinga (she/her) completed a bachelor’s and master’s degree in cultural anthropology at Utrecht University. Her research interests include the anthropology of morality and ethics, the nature/culture debate, the multispecies turn, and visual and sensory approaches. For the ReWorkChange project, she will conduct research in the Netherlands.
Radu Mareș (he/him) holds a BA (University of Bucharest) and an MSc (KU Leuven) in anthropology. During his studies, his research explored topics such as sensory labour in the coffee industry and socioecological transformations in a natural protected area in Romania. Within ReWorkChange, he will build on his broader interest in labour and the social and material transformations shaping everyday life, and is particularly excited to return to Romania to conduct fieldwork as part of a global comparative study.
