Dr. Dahya completed her undergraduate degree in English Literature and Psychology at the University of British Columbia, and her PhD and M.Ed. at York University’s Faculty of Education with a focus on digital media production, learning, and representation among young people of colour. From 2014-2019, Dr. Dahya was appointed Assistant Professor at the University of Washington, Information School in Seattle, WA. In 2018, Dr. Dahya and colleagues were awarded the AERA Palmer O. Johnson Memorial Award for their paper “Pathways to Educational Success Among Refugees: Connecting Locally and Globally Situated Research”. Notable funding awards also include the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and the Simpson Center for Digital Humanities. She has also published in the following journals; Comparative Education, American Educational Research Journal, Learning, Media & Technology, and Information, Communication & Society.
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Specializations
Digital media and learning, refugee education, postcolonial theory, Information and communication technology in development and technology, media education, feminist research methods and critical race theory
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Research
My research explores the social and cultural context of digital media production and use with a focus on learning contexts and non-dominant communities. I conduct qualitative, feminist, and visual research with girls and women of colour and other non-dominant communities, including young people who are or have been incarcerated and refugee communities. My work is situated at the intersection of education, media and cultural studies, and sociotechnical theory with a focus on postcolonial feminist and critical race theories. Methodologically, I primarily adopt interview methods and visual research methods.
Recent research projects have included the study of virtual reality concept art creation with young people in a juvenile rehabilitation center. This project involved the development of a VR media education program focused on art design and made for incarcerated youth, and in partnership with young people and teachers at the juvenile rehabilitation center’s in-house school. Research questions include the value of VR for this community and the ways in which it might entice participants to seek out digital arts programs at public libraries following their period of incarceration.
In another recent project, I explored the technology access and education opportunities for refugee women, also considering the role of public libraries in the provision of services, alongside non-profits and government programs. In this study, my team similarly investigated the historical conditions of migration, culture, and politics/governance that relate to women’s interest and opportunity to use and engage in digital literacy and non-digital technology like sewing and driving.
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Publications
Published Journal Articles
- Dahya, N. & King, W.E.. (in press). Politics of Race, Gender, and Visual Representation in Feminist Media Education. Discourse: Studies in The Cultural Politics of Education. Final manuscript accepted October 2019.
- Dahya, N. Dryden-Peterson, S., Douhaibi, D. & Arvisais, O. (2019) Social Support Networks, Instant Messaging, and Gender Equity in Refugee Education. Information, Communication & Society, 22(6), 774-790.
- Dryden-Peterson, S., Dahya, N. and Adelman, E. (2017). Pathways to educational success among refugees: Connecting locally and globally-situated resources. American Educational Research Journal, 54(6). https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831217714321 *Palmer O. Johnson Memorial Award, AERA 2018
- Dahya, N. and Dryden-Peterson, S. (2017). Tracing pathways to higher education for refugees: the role of virtual support networks and mobile phones for women in refugee camps. Comparative Education, 53(2), 284-301. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03050068.2016.1259877
- Dahya, N., Jenson, J. and Fong, K. (2017). (En)Gendering videogame development: a feminist approach to gender, education & game studies. Review of Education, Pedagogy & Culture, 39(4), 367-390.
- Dussel, I. & Dahya, N. (2017) Introduction: problematizing voice and representation in youth media production. Special Issue: Voice and Representation in Youth Media Production in Educational Settings: Transnational Dialogues. Learning, Media & Technology, 42(1), 1-7. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2016.1205602
- Dahya, N. (2017). Critical perspectives in youth digital media production: ‘voice’ and representation in educational contexts. Learning, Media & Technology, 42(1), 100-111. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2016.1141785
- Dahya, N. & Jenson, J. (2015). Mis/representations in school based digital media: an ethnographic study with Muslim Girls. Diaspora, Minority & Indigenous Education: Studies in Migration, Integration, Equity & Cultural Survival, 9(2), 108-123. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15595692.2015.1013209
Book Chapters
- Douhaibi, D., Dahya, N., Dryden-Peterson, S., and Arvisais, O. (in press). Culture, Gender and Technology: Mediating Teacher Training Using Text Messaging in Refugee Camps. J. Bhabha, W.M. Giles, and F. Mahomed (Eds). A Better Future: The Role of Higher Education for Displaced and Marginalized People.
- Saleem, Z. & Dahya, N. (2019) Values, Neoliberalism & the Digital Divide: Nonwhite media makers and the production of meaning. E. Morrell and J. Rowsell (Eds). Stories from Inequity to Justice in Literacy Education: Confronting Digital Divides. New York: Routledge, pp. 165-184.
- Dahya, N. & King, W.E. (2018). Feminist perspectives and mobile culture(s): power and participation in girls’ digital video making communities. In Berliner, L. and Krabill, R. (Eds.). Feminist Interventions in Participatory Media: Pedagogy, Publics, Practice.
- Jenson, J., Dahya, N. & Fisher, S. (2014). “Power struggles: knowledge production in a DIY news club”. In Megan Boler and Matt Ratto (Eds.) DIY Citizenship: Critical Making and Social Media. Boston: MIT Press
Encyclopedia Entries
- Dahya, N. (2012). Learning at Play. Encyclopedia of Sciences of Learning. New York: Springer
Reports
- Dahya, N., Lee, J.H., Lee, K,J., King, W.E., Goel, M., Yassin, H. Virtual Reality in public Libraries. University of Washington Information School. Available online at https://digitalyouth.ischool.uw.edu/sites/digitalyouth.ischool.uw.edu/files/virtual_reality_in_public_libraries.pdf
- Dahya, N. (2016). Education in Conflict and Crisis: How Can Technology Make a Difference? A Landscape Review. Commissioned report for GIZ Germany, USAID, World Vision International. Available online at http://www.ineesite.org/en/resources/landscape-review-education-in-conflict-and-crisis-how-can-technology-make-a
- Fisher, K., Davis, K., Yip, J., Dahya, N., Mills, J. E., & Eisenberg, M. (2016). Digital Youth Seattle Think Tank White Paper. Available online at http://dystt.ischool.uw.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/DigitalYouthSeattleThinkTank2016.pdf
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Affiliation
University of Washington, Information School
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Course Titles
- INF2243: Critical Histories of Information Technology
- CCT 395: Race, Gender, Media & Technology
- CCT 308: Advanced Qualitative Research Methods
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Honours & Awards
Negin was awarded the Connaught New Researcher Award for her project, Portraits of Education Change: Refugee Education, Gender & Technology. She was also awarded a SSHRC grant as Co-PI with fellow UofT colleagues for their project, Resilience at the crossroads: a techno-feminist approach to intergenerational culture preservation through social storytelling and sense-making within displaced populations.
