Dr Ozge Ozduzen (she/her)

School of Sociological Studies, Politics and International Relations

Lecturer in Digital Media and Society

Ozge Ozduzen
Profile picture of Ozge Ozduzen
o.ozduzen@sheffield.ac.uk
The Wave

Full contact details

Dr Ozge Ozduzen
School of Sociological Studies, Politics and International Relations
The Wave
2 Whitham Road
Sheffield
S10 2AH
Profile

Ozge joined the 爆料TV as a lecturer in digital media and society in 2021. Ozge鈥檚 research is on digital communities, identities and intimacies, particularly examining users鈥 experience and practices of online harms, grievances and resistances. Her interdisciplinary research on digital media cultures is informed by theoretical and methodological approaches from cultural, sociological, media, political and urban studies. She is passionate about multi-methods research that brings together ethnographic, critical discourse, visual and digital methods to develop academic, policy and social impact through her research.

Before joining the 爆料TV, Ozge was a lecturer in sociology and communications at Brunel University London (2019-2021), British Academy Newton International Postdoctoral Fellow in the Institute for diplomacy and international governance at Loughborough University London (2017-2019) and a Swedish Institute post-doc at the centre for Middle Eastern studies at Lund University (2016-2017). She taught in media departments of Istanbul Bilgi University and Izmir University of Economics. She obtained her PhD in media at Edge Hill University (2012-2016) and attended university at the prestigious Bo臒azi莽i University in Istanbul.

Research interests

鈥        Digital communities 
鈥        Digital intimacies
鈥        Digital activism
鈥        Online racism and misogyny
鈥        Online conspiracy theories
鈥        Visual digital cultures

Ozge鈥檚 research has been funded by the British Academy: the European Commission; Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC); Swedish Institute; and Political Studies Association (PSA). Ozge鈥檚 research is in three interrelated areas.

1.        Online harms, intimacies and well-being

Ozge studies online dating harms such as digital misogyny and sexism within dating-app ecologies and self-help content on platforms. An example of this is Ozge鈥檚 current British Academy funded talent development project on dating app users鈥 collective practices and experiences of online dating harms, focusing on artificial intelligence (e.g., image-based abuse).

2.        Online extremism, racism and polarisation

She embraces intersectional approaches and focuses on everyday politics to examine the expression and performance of digital racism and polarisation in authoritarian contexts and/or crisis periods on social media platforms such as YouTube, X and TikTok. Within this strand of research, Ozge was a co-investigator for a 鈧3M Horizon 2020 project entitled(2020-2024) in a large international consortium. She led a work package on the mainstreaming of radicalisation on social media platforms, particularly online far-right cultures. She examined anti-refugee/immigrant media ecology in the 鈥渞efugee crisis鈥 era, examining both 鈥渙rdinary鈥 content and outright racist texts and images in platform ecosystems. Examples of outputs are

3.        Online communities, storytelling, contested images and texts

Ozge investigates audience engagement with political images, videos and spaces for social justice claims and well-being concerns in social movements. Within this strand of research, Ozge led an international and Political Studies Association funded project (2021-2022) on anti-lockdown and anti-vaccine political expression and identities in online and physical spaces during the Covid-19 pandemic. As an output of this project, she co-authored a with translated versions in several languages, and provided written evidence for the UK Parliament鈥檚 DCMS Committee on

Publications

Journal articles

  • Aslan Ozgul B, Ozduzen O & Ianosev B (2025) . Emotion, Space and Society, 56, 101097-101097.
  • Yetis E & Ozduzen O (2024) . Women's Studies International Forum, 107.
  • Ozduzen O, Ferenczi N & Holmes I (2024) . Visual Studies, 38(5), 834-850.
  • Ozduzen O, Aslan Ozgul B & Ianosev B (2023) . Social Movement Studies.
  • Ozduzen O, Korkut U & Ozduzen C (2021) . New Media & Society, 23(11), 3349-3369.
  • Ozduzen O (2021) . Turkish Studies, 22(2), 267-289.
  • Ozduzen O (2020) . City: analysis of urban trends, culture, theory, policy, action, 24(5-6), 741-758.
  • Ozduzen O & Korkut U (2020) . Contemporary Politics, 26(5), 493-511.
  • Ozduzen O (2020) . Journal of Language and Politics, 19(3), 436-456.
  • Ozduzen O & McGarry A (2020) Digital traces of 鈥淭witter Revolutions鈥: resistance, polarization, and surveillance via contested images and texts of occupy Gezi. International Journal of Communication, 14, 2543-2563.
  • Ozduzen O (2020) The Paradox of Creative Constraints-7. MIDDLE EAST JOURNAL OF CULTURE AND COMMUNICATION, 13(1), 120-122.
  • Ozduzen O (2019) . Political Geography, 70, 34-43.
  • Ozduzen O (2018) . Social & Cultural Geography, 19(8), 1028-1052.
  • Ozduzen O (2015) The politicisation and 鈥榦ccupy鈥檚ation of the Istanbul Film Festival audience. Participations, 12(1), 679-702.
  • Ianosev B, Ozduzen O & Aslan Ozgul B () . European Politics and Society, 1-17.
  • Dinc P & Ozduzen O () . New Perspectives on Turkey.

Book chapters

  • Ianosev B & 脰zd眉zen 脰 (2022) , Contesting Cosmopolitan Europe Amsterdam University Press
  • 脰zd眉zen 脰 (2022) , Authoritarian Neoliberalism and Resistance in Turkey (pp. 191-210). Springer Singapore
  • 脰zd眉zen 脰 (2019) In McGarry A, Erhart I, Eslen-Ziya H, Jenzen O & Korkut U (Ed.), The Aesthetics of Global Protest: Visual Culture and Communication (pp. 191-210). Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.

Book reviews

  • 脰zd眉zen 脰 (2021) State, media, and political messaging in contemporary Turkey. The Cairo Review of Global Affairs, 41(Spring 2021).
  • Ozduzen O (2020) . Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication, 13(1), 120-122.
  • Ozduzen O (2019) . Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication, 2(12), 256-258.

Reports

  • Staples H, Ozduzen O, Rolon V & Ferenzci N (2023) Spatial aspects of de-radicalisation processes in London
  • Holmes I, Ozduzen O, Ferenczi N, Liu K & Rosun N (2021) Trends of radicalisation in the UK
  • Ferenczi N, Ozduzen O, Holmes I & Liu K (2021) Cultural drivers of radicalisation in the UK
  • Ozduzen O, Ferenczi N, Holmes I, Rosun N, Liu K & Alsayednoor S (2021) Stakeholders of (De)-Radicalisation in the UK
  • Korkut U, Foley J & Ozduzen O (2020) The Digital Publics of #Schengen and #Eurozone During the Coronavirus Crisis

Digital content

  • Ozduzen O & Korkut U (2020) Post-鈥榬efugee crisis鈥 social media : the unbearable lightness of sharing racist posts. Retrieved from
  • Korkut U & Ozduzen O (2019) Digital mundane : political expression and polarisation on Twitter in the post-'refugee crisis鈥. Retrieved from
  • Ozduzen O Post-鈥楻efugee Crisis鈥 Social Media: The unbearable lightness of sharing racist posts.
  • Ozduzen O Robots, kittens and Netflix : Turkish curbs on the media reach ludicrous levels. Retrieved from
Research group

Ozge currently leads the social inequalities and social order research cluster and is a proud member of the science and technology in medicine research cluster in the School.
She has been a member of these international associations and learned societies:

鈥        MeCCSA (Media, Communication and Cultural Studies Association)
鈥        PSA (Political Studies Association)
鈥        AoIR (Association of Internet Researchers)
鈥        ECREA (European Communication Research and Education Association)

Ozge is a reviewer for the British Academy, the European Research Council (ERC), Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Government of Canada. She is also a frequent peer reviewer for Q1 journals in the fields of visual sociology, digital media and social movements. 
 

Grants

British Academy Talent Development Award, 鈥淎I Intimacies: Advancing Sociological Methods for Studying Everyday Life and Technologies鈥, Principal Investigator (March 2026-March 2027), 拢9,997 (with ).

British Academy, the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) and the Science & Innovation Network in the USA (SIN USA), , Principal Investigator (October 2021 鈥 April 2022), 拢111,230, (with , , and ).

Horizon 2020 - , (D.Rad), Co-Investigator (December 2020 鈥 April 2024), 鈧3,099,535 (with).

- 拢1150 (with Dr Billur Aslan Ozgul and Dr Bogdan Ianosev).

AHRC - 5GXR - , Co-Investigator (May 2020 - January 2021), 拢37,615 (with ).

British Academy Training and Dissemination Grant (2019), 拢5024.

NF170302 (2017-2019), 拢81,577.

Swedish Institute Postdoctoral Fellowship 02496/2017 (2017) SEK 216,000.

Teaching activities

Ozge integrates her research into her teaching to help her students obtain an interdisciplinary understanding and a multi-methods perspective of digital cultures and politics. She embraces an inclusive and international teaching pedagogy. She uses student-led teaching methodologies, harnesses new technologies for learning and brings global examples and case studies.

Ozge designed and is currently the module leader for:

鈥        Platforms, Identities, Algorithms (SPR 433) 
鈥        Digital Cultures and Visual Methods (SPR 423)

She co-taught and/or contributed to:

鈥        Digital Marketing and Consumer Culture (SPR 322)
鈥        Digital Identities (SPR 347)
鈥        Researching Society 
鈥        Hate, Hope and Digital Misinformation

Her Platforms, Identities, Algorithms (SPR 433) module explores various aspects of identity formation and performance in the context of digital media platforms, algorithms and AI. It examines digital identities in global contexts, at the intersections between different identity markers such as race and gender and in relation to emerging technologies.

Her Digital Cultures and Visual Methods (SPR 423) module covers qualitative visual methods of data collection and analysis and focuses on ethical considerations in visual communication. It helps students to locate and utilise a range of visual data, especially on online platforms, such as photos, videos, digital and AI-generated images.

Ozge is an experienced supervisor for students at BA and MA levels. She supervised many undergraduate and postgraduate dissertations on digital cultures and politics at the 爆料TV, Brunel University London and Loughborough University, including Brexit memes and humour, #MeToo cultures, celebrity diplomacy and self-censorship on platforms in China. 

Postgraduate supervision

Ozge supervises PhD dissertations in the areas of digital activism, online racism and nationalism, trust, agency and new technologies. She is currently supervising six PhD researchers:

Arif Lukman Hakim - Insider activism: Social media engagement in civil servant protests in Indonesia (co-supervised with Dr Warren Pearce)

Meng Wu - Taiwan is trending: How platform affordances shape banal nationalism on Weibo (co-supervised with Prof Mike Thelwall)

Nabila Cruz de Carvalho - Exploring Trust in digital news media among young underserved audiences in an age of artificial intelligence (co-supervised with Prof Helen Kennedy)

Hestutomo Kuncoro - Glitched: social media and democratic discourse in flawed democracies (co-supervised with Prof Kate Dommett)

Ryan Hartfield - Zones of promise: Carbon capture, fossil fuel futures and exceptional governance (co-supervised with Dr Warren Pearce)

Victoria Knowles - English football, race and social justice in the digital age: exploring Twitter framing and discourse in the wake of 鈥榯aking a knee鈥 (co-supervised withand Dr Jo Britton)

Ozge acted as an external examiner for two PhD dissertations at the University of Southampton and Nottingham Trent University and an internal examiner for four PhD dissertations at the 爆料TV.