Lauren Chambers and Janiya Peters, two Ph.D. students at the UC Berkeley School of Information, have been selected as part of this year’s cohort for the Oxford-Berkeley Summer Doctoral Program (SDP). The pair have both been awarded scholarships for the program from the I School and the Berkeley Center for New Media.
Peters and Chambers will be joining up to thirty other doctoral students for two weeks at Oxford, where they will participate in group discussions and lectures with leading academics about topics relating to information studies, the internet, new media, and other digital technologies. This is the I School’s second year partnering with the Oxford Internet Institute and the Berkeley Center for New Media (BCNM on the program.
Last year, the program was held at UC Berkeley, where attendees from Amsterdam, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, Germany, Singapore, Canada, Australia, Sweden, Finland, and across the United States had the opportunity to share and discuss their research with their peers. The partnership was a massive success, with participants appreciating the mix of thought-provoking seminars and fun, exploratory activities.
“ As our sociotechnological problems deepen, building community across diverse expertise is more important than ever.”
“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.”
Lauren Chambers, whose research primarily focuses on public interest technology, decided to apply to SDP because of the networking aspect. “It’s such a unique opportunity to connect with other interdisciplinary Ph.D. students and scholars who are focused on critical issues in technology,” she explained. “As our sociotechnological problems deepen, building community across diverse expertise is more important than ever!”
“As a senior Ph.D. candidate in the School of Information, attending SDP will help strengthen how I frame and contextualize my dissertation research within a broader sociotechnical context. I also hope it will be an opportunity to make connections that might be fruitful as I am entering the academic job market next year,” she added.
While also interested in building networks, Janiya Peters also decided to apply to the program due to overlapping research interests with current Oxford projects. “My work overlaps with Oxford Internet Institute’s Digital Knowledge and Culture” research group; I’m deeply fascinated by evolving 2D/3D media and archival practices as demonstrated in Dr. Kathryn Eccles’ ‘Cabinet’ online platform,” she said.
“As an Information Science and New Media student, I look forward to interacting with a multidisciplinary cohort of scholars as we think through unique contributions to Internet Studies…I look forward to attending in-person seminars held by the Oxford Digital Ethnography Group,” she reiterated.
The School of Information and BCNM decided to offer scholarships as part of a strategic investment in the program and in Berkeley students. The scholarship will provide students with financial support to offset the cost of attendance and to support their experience in Oxford.
