Meet our team!

Amanda Alencar is a digital migration scholar specialized in the study of media and social media in Europe and Latin America, with a focus on how communication technologies are shaping mobility and sociocultural integration processes of (forced) migrants. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Media & Communication at Erasmus University Rotterdam and Vice Chair of the Intercultural Communication Division within the International Communication Association (ICA). Amanda was a Research Fellow at the Refugee Studies Centre (Oxford University) and Marie Curie Fellow at the University of Amsterdam. She has guest edited two special issues in the (open-access) peer-reviewed journals International Communication Gazette and Media and Communication on the intersections between media, communication and forced migration processes. Alongside her academic work, she coordinates a digital training programme for students with a refugee background as part of their preparatory 1-year program at Erasmus University Rotterdam. Amanda has recently joined The Migration Podcast team as Associate Producer.

Emma Verhoeven is a designer and media artist based in Rotterdam. She makes playful installations, videos and digital illustrations, which often pose questions about consumerism, identity, and technology. In her practice, she combines visual research, critical theory, and digital tools to translate intuitions and questions about complex societal issues into fun and engaging audiovisual works. Using found footage and familiar visual languages, she creates explorable little worlds.

Camila is a communication designer from Bogota, Colombia, and holds a master's degree in Media, Culture, and Society from Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands. She is passionate about the intersection between education, social entrepreneurship, forced migration, and communication technologies. In 2017, she co-founded Quántica Education, a school for social entrepreneurship and creative business design based in Colombia. In the last four years, the organization has trained more than 250 change agents using social entrepreneurship and participatory design tools to develop high-impact projects.
 

As part of her work in academia, Camila is interested in exploring how to implement creative and co-participatory methodologies that allow for a more in-depth understanding of the impact that academic research can have on society.

Jaber Mawazini (1983) received a Master of Arts, Cultural Sociology from Erasmus University Rotterdam. His master thesis focused on two pillars: first, it addressed social inequalities on the basis of class and race-ethnicity in (cultural) consumption. Second, it interpreted the cultural practices of Syrian refugees through analyzing their food habits and music in the Netherlands. He has also worked and collaborated in various research projects on topics related to cultural identities, music, media, and migration both as research assistant and advisor. Recently, Jaber co-authored the paper Sonische verbindingen tussen Nederland en Syrië.

Aside from research, Jaber is a member of the sounding board group of the municipality of Amsterdam where he has been actively working for the last five years on refugee related issues. If you would like to get in touch, email Jaber at: jaber.mawazini@gmail.com