In July, 27 students from across the world traveled to the UC Berkeley campus to attend the Summer Doctoral Program (Programme), a collaboration between the UC Berkeley School of Information, the Oxford Internet Institute (OII), and the Berkeley Center for New Media (BCNM). The Oxford Internet Institute at the University of Oxford has hosted the Summer Doctoral Programme since 2003, and this year marked the start of a new collaboration between Oxford and Berkeley, which will see participants alternating between the two locations every other year.
Attendees came from Amsterdam, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, Germany, Singapore, Canada, Australia, Sweden, Finland, and across the United States to meet other doctoral students and attend daily lectures and seminars with leading academics in the field of information and internet studies. During the two-week program, which ran from July 14 to July 27, 2025, the participants had the opportunity to share and discuss their research and spend time in Silicon Valley and San Francisco, as well as on the Berkeley campus.
“One of the most enriching aspects [of the program] was the chance to build and refine my own dissertation within a rigorous, multidisciplinary environment alongside senior academics and young scholars,” said Mohsin Yousufi, a program participant from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
A common theme throughout the experience was diversity, with many scholars from varied backgrounds and different research interests. Throughout the course of over 25 sessions, participants also learned from a wide breadth of topics in the field, such as climate informatics, large language models, machine learning for humanitarian aid, folkloristics, research designs, and artificial intelligence. These lectures explored how different information research projects interact and build upon one another, which helped many students as they thought through their dissertations.
One participant, Michelle Bartleman from the University of Ottawa, stated, “I was exposed to disciplines I wouldn’t normally choose to go to and was pleasantly surprised by how they overlapped with my [research]. There’s value in making sure there’s a diversity of content or topics and that we all attend those [sessions].”
“It almost felt like an academic summer camp: structured and intense, but also full of curiosity and laughter.”
Another theme for this experience was exploration, both physical and mental. Not only were the scholars encouraged to step outside their comfort zones by exploring other disciplines, but they were also expected to share their dissertation research early on in the program. By doing so at the start, participants were able to receive specialized feedback from faculty and peers to refine their topics and develop new research questions that could hopefully be answered in the following seminars. This helped foster an open dialogue and set the tone for a collaborative experience throughout the two weeks.
“I really enjoyed being out of my context for two weeks, not thinking about how I could be improving a certain paper or the framework, just getting back to debating interesting questions,” said Fabiola Schwarz, a doctoral student at the Technical University of Munich (TUM). “I would have never expected that not working on my dissertation projects for the entire two weeks would end up more productive than I could have been in my office.”
“I had the opportunity to present my research on technology-facilitated violence against politically active individuals, receive feedback, rethink old questions in new ways, and even exchange early postdoc proposal ideas. I especially appreciated the chance to engage with inspiring faculty from both Oxford and Berkeley, whose openness made this program truly worthwhile,” added fellow TUM participant Luise Koch. “It almost felt like an academic summer camp: structured and intense, but also full of curiosity and laughter.”
The doctoral students also participated in day trips, first traveling to the city of Mountain View before heading to San Francisco the day after. In Mountain View, a well-known hub for technology companies and research centers, they visited the Computer History Museum and Google headquarters. At the museum, participants saw an exhibition extensively highlighting the history of computing and spoke to Ameca, a robot created for the “Chatbot” exhibit. Afterwards, they stopped by the GooglePlex and enjoyed the Google Visitor Experience, checking out the views while enjoying some tasty bites at the cafe.
The next day, the participants traveled to San Francisco, where they rode a double-decker bus to get the full tourist experience. Stopping by Pier 39, the Golden Gate Bridge, and some of the city’s biggest attractions, the tour allowed the students to take in views and get to know their peers.
“After a week of nonstop studying, our day at the Computer History Museum and exploring San Francisco was the perfect break,” said Yitong Gu, a student at Hong Kong Baptist University. “The museum was so cool, playing with the interactive exhibits about old computers and coding felt so fun. Even though San Francisco hit us with that classic summer fog, we had a blast and got to know each other better from all the chatting during the ride. From morning to night, it was a carefree, stress-free day hanging out downtown with the cohort, exactly what we needed to recharge."
By the end of the program, many participants left with new friends, more knowledge, and, more importantly, increased confidence in their doctoral research and beyond. They became aware of global opportunities that awaited them after graduation and left feeling ready to tackle their research with new eyes and even newer acquired knowledge of multiple information science disciplines.
“It was the highlight of my summer to engage with doctoral students from all over the world, and to welcome them into our ever-growing network of scholars. I am confident that ideas and relationships formed here will result in new knowledge and collaborations that will have a significant impact on scholarship in the coming decades.”
“I am really delighted that we have been able to establish this new partnership between Oxford and Berkeley that extends the distinguished history of impact the OII has had on serious doctoral research about the internet, information, and new media,” said School of Information Dean Eric Meyer. “It was the highlight of my summer to engage with doctoral students from all over the world, and to welcome them into our ever-growing network of scholars. I am confident that ideas and relationships formed here will result in new knowledge and collaborations that will have a significant impact on scholarship in the coming decades.”
“I can say that this trip has been one of the highlights of my Ph.D. journey so far,” said Juulia Heikkinen, a doctoral student at the University of Helsinki. “Having the chance to hear from top scholars about their projects has definitely helped me gain a bird’s-eye view of the field of internet studies writ large and to better position my own work within it.”
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign doctoral student Daniela Markazi agreed, “I return from this experience inspired, excited, and more connected to a global community of scholars committed to critically engaging with the digital world and its impact on society.”
