My name is Azadeh Akbari, and I am Assistant Professor in Digital Transformation at the University of Twente, the Netherlands. I am an EU-funded Marie Skłodowska-Curie Global Fellow (2024-7) for my project Authoritarian Smart Cities.

I am the co-director of the Surveillance Studies Network and the founder and director of the Surveillance in the Majority World Network, which aims to expand the scope of surveillance studies to include non-Western discourses and practices and create a place for exchange, collaboration, and activism against the undemocratic use of surveillance technologies. I am also an associate editor for the journals Surveillance & Society and Information Technology for Development.

I studied sociology (BA) and journalism in Iran and gender research (MSc) at the London School of Economics and Political Sciences. I obtained my PhD in human geography from the University of Heidelberg. I then joined the University of Münster as a postdoctoral research associate in political geography.

I have been a journalist for many years and worked as a communication manager and community outreach specialist at the UNHCR, UNICEF, and the British Council. I am a professional amateur in lindy-hop dance, documentary film-making, and cooking.

For media and consultancy inquiries, please use the contact page. I speak Farsi, English, and German fluently.