Lawrence Ampofo (2012)

Lawrence was supervised by Professor Ben O'Loughlin. He holds an MSc in International Security and Global Governance from Birkbeck College, University of London (2007). His thesis was titled, "Terrorism 3.0: Understanding Perceptions of Technology, Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism in Spain". Lawrence now runs his own social media analytics company, Semantica Research. Follow Lawrence on Twitter.

Billur Aslan (2015)

Billur was supervised by Professor Ben O'Loughlin. Her thesis was entitled "Leadership in the Digital Age: The Impact of Political Culture on the Use of Media Technologies during the 2011 Egyptian and Syrian Protests." Follow Billur on Twitter.

Nick Anstead (2009)

Nick’s thesis, supervised by Professor Andrew Chadwick, was concerned with how structural differences between the British and American party systems shape political uses of the Internet during election campaigns. He was appointed Lecturer in Politics at the University of East Anglia in September 2008 and in September 2010 he became a Lecturer in Political Communication in the Department of Media and Communications at LSE. For more information about his research, see his website. Follow Nick on Twitter.

Aaron Bastani (2015)

Aaron’s thesis was entitled “Strike! Occupy! Retweet!: The Relationship Between Collective and Connective Action in Austerity Britain.” He is co-founder of Novara Media, director of Silke Digital, and a contributor to the Guardian, the London Review of Books, Vice, Left Foot Forward, and Open Democracy, among other outlets. Aaron was supervised by Professor Andrew Chadwick. Follow Aaron on Twitter.

Puay Hoe Chua

Puay Hoe's working title is "Examining the Perceptions of Political Communication Control and Its Impact on Political Legitimacy within a Changing Media Ecology: A Comparative Analysis of Greater China and Singapore." He holds an MSc in International Political Economy and a BA in Communication from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Puay Hoe was supervised by Professor Ben O'Loughlin.

Simon Collister (2019)

Simon’s thesis was entitled “Towards a Theory of Media Power in a Networked Communication Environment: Case Studies of #Demo2012, Adidas, and #AskSnowden”. He was supervised by Professor Andrew Chadwick.

Simon’s thesis critiqued existing theories of media power and argued that in today’s complex media environment power is based on interactions between the culturally symbolic components of media communication and the material features and processes of media through which symbolic communication occurs. Through the creation of an analytical model based on Assemblage Theory empirical fieldwork was used to investigate the model using three case studies. This identified four future themes for research on media power: the importance of institutional adaptation, the role of emotion and affect, the significance of computation and the materiality of technology.

Simon studied part time. He is currently working as Strategy Director at the marketing consultancy, Blackbook London. Follow Simon on Twitter.

Luke Coughlan

Luke was an ESRC-funded PhD student researching political polarization on social media. His work focused on audience fragmentation and uncivil discussion on online platforms. He was supervised by the excellent team of Kaat Smets and Sofia Collignon.

James Dennis (2015)

James' PhD was entitled "It's Better to Light a Candle than to Fantasise About a Sun": Exploring Social Media and "Slacktivism." His research provides an extended critique of the popular idea of “slacktivism,” and he sets this out with a radical and highly innovative multi-method research design consisting of ethnographic fieldwork, media consumption diaries, and a series of lab experiments. He was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council South East Doctoral Training Consortium and was co-supervised by Professor Andrew Chadwick and Professor Ben O'Loughlin. James was awarded his doctorate in November 2015 and from June 2016 he is a permanent Senior Lecturer in Journalism in the School of Social, Historical and Literary Studies at the University of Portsmouth. For more information about his research and teaching, see his website. Follow James on Twitter.

Scott Downham

Scott is a Royal Holloway-funded PhD candidate in the Department of Politics and International Relations. His working PhD title is, "How socialisation influences our political communication." He is co-supervised by Professor Ben O'Loughlin and Professor James Sloam at NewPolCom. Follow Scott on Twitter.

Adam Drew (2018)

Adam Drew was awarded his PhD on 15 May 2018 after defending this thesis, Cyber-Security: An Analysis of International and Domestic Norm Emergence. His external examiner was Prof. Maura Conway of Dublin City University and his internal examiner was Dr. Tom Dyson of Royal Holloway. Adam was supervised by Prof. Ben O'Loughlin. Follow Adam on Twitter.

Christopher Frazier-Crawford Boerl (2012)

Christopher Frazier-Crawford Boerl, who was supervised by Professor Andrew Chadwick, wrote his thesis about the Internet's role in civic engagement, mobilization and social capital, based on an analysis of the role of religious organizations in US politics. Dr Boerl was communications manager for Mike Williams for Congress 2012 and currently works for Teach for America, a U.S.-wide educational nonprofit.

Gill Griffiths-Jones

Gill is conducting a comparative study of strategic narratives of drones and how those narratives shape public opinion in different countries. The working title of her PhD is, "The Proliferation of Armed Unmanned Vehicles:  Policymaking, Public Opinion and the Media." She is co-supervised by Dr Kaat Smets and Professor Ben O'Loughlin.

Matthew Hall (2017)

Matt passed his PhD in June 2017. His thesis was titled, Liberal Democratic Surveillance: Rules, Legitimacy and the Institutionalisation of Domination. Matt was awarded a full scholarship by the ESRC. He was co-supervised by Dr Jonathan Seglow and Professor Ben O'Loughlin.

Yenn Lee (2009)

Yeon-ok Lee (Yenn Lee) was supervised by Professor Andrew Chadwick. Her thesis focused on mobilisation and civic engagement on the Internet, on the basis of a case study of the Nosama movement in South Korea. Yenn blogs at Yawningtree.net. She is now a Lecturer in social science research methods at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. Follow Yenn on Twitter.

Amber Macintyre (2021)

Amber joined us in September 2015. Her research was funded by the Leverhulme Trust. In 2015, Royal Holloway was awarded over £1 million from the Trust to support a total of 15 PhD research projects on the theme of Freedom and the Rights of the Individual in the Digital Age. Amber’s thesis was titled, "Campaigning by Numbers: The Role of Data-Driven Practices in Civil Society Organisations".  Follow Amber on Twitter.

Declan McDowell-Naylor (2019)

Declan’s PhD examined how we can advance towards an ‘ethics of technologies’ in the context of innovation and politics in the UK, and the implications of this for social and political power. The project focused on the political process of enrolling public support for driverless cars in the UK. Declan was co-supervised by Professor Ben O'Loughlin and Professor Andrew Chadwick. Declan is now a Research Associate at the School of Journalism, Media & Culture at Cardiff University. For more information about his research, see his website. Follow Declan on Twitter.

Chris Perkins (2011)

Chris's PhD, supervised by Professor Ben O'Loughlin, focused on how images of foreignness are constructed in Japan, and what this can tell us about current theories of cultural exchange, the nation and globalization. Chris is Reviews Editor of the journal Media, War & Conflict. In January 2011 Chris became a Lecturer in Japanese Studies at the University of Edinburgh.

Mark Pope (2014)

Mark's PhD was entitled "Risk-cosmopolitanism: How the UK Government and news media structure the order of security discourse to impede challenges on torture and abuse" He was supervised by Professor Ben O'Loughlin. Mark is currently a Teaching Fellow on the Global Challenges Programme at Imperial College London. Follow Mark on Twitter.

Guido Reinke (2009)

Guido’s thesis investigated the policy-making process for EU ICT policy, and focused in particular on the role played by business organisations in defining the the EU’s Information Society project. Guido currently works for Ernst and Young as a consultant. He was supervised by Professor Andrew Chadwick.

Amy P. Smith (2017)

Amy is examining news media agenda-setting during the 2015 UK general election, with a particular focus on the impact of new and social media. The working title of her thesis is “Communication, Commodification & Control: Political Communication during the 2015 General Election in the United Kingdom." Amy was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council South East Doctoral Training Consortium and was co-supervised by Professor Andrew Chadwick and Professor Ben O’Loughlin. Amy joined the Department of Politics at the University of Sheffield in September 2018. She now holds the position of University Teacher in British Politics/Public Policy. Follow Amy on Twitter.

Nikki Soo (2017)

Nikki's project examined the contemporary MP-constituent representative relationship, focusing on constituency services carried out by the British MP and how effective political communication is carried out in the hybrid media environment. She was co-supervised by Professor Ben O'Loughlin and Dr Cristian Vaccari. Nikki Soo has since joined the University of Sheffield as postdoctoral research associate at the Sir Bernard Crick Centre. For more about her research, see her website. Follow Nikki on Twitter.

Ellen Watts (2018)

Ellen Watts defended her thesis on 19 December 2018. Her PhD was titled, Celebrities as Political Representatives: Explaining the Exchangeability of Celebrity Capital in the Political Field. Her examiners were Prof. Nick Couldry (LSE) and Prof. John Street (University of East Anglia). Ellen was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council South East Doctoral Training Consortium, and was co-supervised by Professor Andrew Chadwick and Professor Ben O'Loughlin. For more information about her research, see her website. Follow Ellen on Twitter.