Negin Dahya

Negin Dahya is Associate Professor at the Institute of Communication, Culture, Information & Technology, University of Toronto. Professor Dahya also teaches graduate classes and supervises graduate students at Faculty of Information. She currently holds the appointment of Special Advisor for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, Office of the Vice-Principal, University of Toronto Mississauga.

Dahya’s research explores the social and cultural context of digital media and technology use with a focus on girls and women of colour, migrants and refugees, and other non-dominant groups. Her current work focuses on refugees living in refugee camps in sub-Saharan Africa, exploring the socio-technical context of media and technology in learning settings and in everyday life. Dahya also conducts community-based research locally. She works with migrants in Canada to understand memory and culture practices using technology and the broader significance individuals have to media and technology in resettlement. Dahya’s past research projects have involved studying VR play programs with incarcerated young people, and, conducting research on digital media production workshops for girls of colour in schools and after-school media programs.

Dahya’s work is situated at the intersection of digital media and cultural studies, socio-technical studies, and learning, with a focus on postcolonial and feminist theories. Methodologically, she primarily adopts interview methods and visual research methods, engaging in qualitative and community-based research practices.

Dahya completed her undergraduate degree in English Literature and Psychology at the University of British Columbia, and her M.Ed. and PhD at York University’s Faculty of Education, with a focus on digital media production, learning, and representation among young people of colour. Dahya’s resume includes 7 years of work at the National Film Board of Toronto in the media education department and 5 years as an Assistant Professor at the University of Washington iSchool before returning to Toronto to work at UofT.

• SSHRC Insight Grant. As principal investigator for the project, Collaborative Decision-Making in Refugee Camps: Community Engagement in Education & Technology. (2023)
• Connaught New Researcher Award. Portraits of Education Change: Refugee Education, Gender and Technology. (2020)
• SSHRC New Frontiers in Research Fund (NFRF). As co-principal investigator for the project, Resilience at the crossroads: a techno-feminist approach to intergenerational culture preservation through storytelling and sense-making within displaced populations. (2020)
• AERA Palmer O. Johnson Memorial Award. Awarded, along with colleagues for their paper, Pathways to Educational Success Among Refugees: Connecting Locally and Globally Situated Research. (2018)
• Funding Award. Institute of Museum and Library Services. (2018)
• Funding Award. The Simpson Center for Digital Humanities. (2017)