Ph.D. Candidate Nora Suren has been awarded the 2024 Suopis Communication Graduate Fellowship to support her dissertation entitled "Navigating Double Oppression Online: How Digital Content Creators Maintain Ideological Integrity under Algorithmic Bias and Turkish Authoritarianism." She plans to utilize the Suopis funds to expedite her dissertation progress, including in-person fieldwork in Turkey this summer and covering conference fees for the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR) conference in England.
Suren’s dissertation investigates the experiences of "alternative creators" in Turkey's political landscape, particularly women and LGBTQ+ individuals, who are advocating for progressive ideologies amidst censorship and identity-based hate. She offers a unique perspective by examining politically precarious creators in authoritarian regimes, employing digital ethnography and conducting in-depth interviews. Chapters will delve into influencers' responses during significant events like the 2023 earthquake disaster and the presidential election and will aim to contribute to understanding influencer activism in authoritarian societies and propose future research avenues.
Suren is currently in her fifth year of the program (All But Dissertation), and hopes to graduate in 2025. She plans to present her dissertation research at the AoIR conference in the Fall.