Amelia Hassoun

Amelia Hassoun is a scholar focused on the study of digital and medical anthropology as well as smart cities. She is currently a Junior Research Fellow at Darwin College, University of Cambridge, and a member of the Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy. Her research centers on how marginalized groups resist, imagine, and practice technology-driven futures amidst extreme constraints, such as pervasive state surveillance. Hassoun specializes in ethnographic methods, qualitative data analysis, and human-computer interaction research. She has led multiple academic and policy-based projects and served as a Visiting Research Scientist at Google, designing digital security solutions for high-risk users. Additionally, she manages the Digital Argonaut project and is active in sports, coaching the Cambridge University women’s basketball team and competing in the England National Basketball League.

• 2021 – Present·University of Cambridge·Research Fellow
  • Conduct longitudinal ethnographic research to examine behaviors and trust mechanisms in marginalized groups within information ecosystems.
• 2012 – 2015·Yale University / UCL·Academic Researcher
  • Carried out ethnographic studies in community health and social care, authored data-driven policy reports, and developed an information website for cancer patients under NHS.
• 2017 – 2022·University of Oxford·PhD Researcher
  • Investigated sensor technologies in smart cities and their interrelation with aging societies.

• 2017 – 2022·University of Oxford·PhD (DPhil)
  • Studied the social impact of smart city technologies, digital health, and sensor networks.
• 2015 – 2016·UCL·Master’s Degree
  • Focused on digital and medical anthropology and participatory design.