Digital Cultures

Digital Cultures

Our research

The Digital Cultures research group is interested in how digital media and technologies can act as disruptive - and potentially transformative - forces in society.

This group engages with the digital in its different dimensions: as objects, as structures and as processes.

It develops conceptual and methodological innovations to better understand these dimensions. It also considers wider societal arrangements and how these impinge on those same dimensions.  

The key research themes of the group include:

  • how the affordances of digital objects affect our sense and perception of the world and our place within it
  • how digital objects and methods can be used, or can be influential, in civic and political communication and culture
  • how practice-based research and digital creation can be a key force in contemporary culture, producing structures that facilitate and influence everyday decisions and experiences.

Impact and engagement

The Digital Cultures research group has worked on a number of projects to develop changes in practice associated with access to digital tools for communities, including those with intellectual disabilities, the mapping and modelling of at-risk environments, the exploration of sensory and virtual reality tools in heritage contexts, community coding, gender, copyright and digital archives. We are focussed on how digital objects and methods can be used, or can be influential, in civic and political communication and culture.

Research projects

Explore our past and present research projects here.

Academic team

Dr Joanne Armitage and Dr Chris Birchall.

Visit our profiles for more information about our academic team.

PhD researchers

Get in touch with one of our PhD researchers.

Media contacts

If you require a media expert, contact the University of Leeds Press Office by calling +44(0)113 343 4031 or by emailing pressoffice@leeds.ac.uk.