My research examines how communication, technological infrastructures and institutional structures shape political power, conflict, legitimacy, knowledge production and social transformation.
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Research Overview
Working across media studies, political communication, critical discourse studies, digital technology studies and higher education research, I investigate two interconnected dimensions of contemporary society: how communication technologies and political actors shape the production and circulation of political narratives; and how conflict, power and institutional structures affect the production, preservation and reconstruction of knowledge.
My work brings together empirical investigations of media discourse, digital platforms and political communication with research into higher education, scholasticide, institutional resilience and academic reconstruction, particularly in Palestine and Gaza. Across these areas, I seek to understand how power operates through communication systems and institutional arrangements, and how these systems shape political and social realities.
Research Philosophy
I understand communication not simply as the transmission of information, but as a contested social and political process through which power, legitimacy, identity and authority are produced, negotiated and challenged.
Political communication cannot be fully understood through texts, narratives or media institutions alone. It also requires attention to the technological infrastructures that shape visibility, circulation, engagement and influence. Similarly, higher education cannot be understood solely through universities as physical organisations. It must also be examined through the institutional, social, technological and epistemic infrastructures that sustain academic life and knowledge production.
This perspective informs my interdisciplinary approach to both research pillars.
In media and digital technology research, I combine discourse-centred analysis with critical examinations of platform infrastructures, algorithms, digital affordances and emerging AI systems. I am particularly interested in how technological systems interact with political and ideological processes to shape the visibility and circulation of communication.
In higher education research, I examine the relationship between institutional structures, political conditions, knowledge infrastructures and academic communities. This includes investigating how universities respond to destruction and disruption, and how academic systems can be reconstructed in ways that strengthen institutional resilience and epistemic self-determination.
Across both areas, I seek to connect the analysis of discourse and technological systems with broader questions of institutional power, political agency and social transformation.
Research Agenda
My research is guided by three questions that connect the study of communication and technology with the study of institutions and knowledge production.
Question 1
How are political realities and forms of knowledge constructed through communication and institutional structures?
I examine how discourse, narratives and media representations shape public understandings of conflict, legitimacy, identity and political action. I also investigate how institutional arrangements, power relations and knowledge infrastructures influence what can be produced, preserved, recognised and communicated as knowledge.
Question 2
How do technological and institutional infrastructures shape visibility, participation and resilience?
My work investigates how platforms, algorithms and emerging AI systems influence information circulation, political visibility and engagement. In higher education, I examine how institutional infrastructures, technological resources and organisational capacities shape academic continuity, institutional survival and reconstruction, particularly under conditions of extreme disruption.
Question 3
How do political actors and institutions respond to conflict and structural transformation?
I analyse how governments, political movements and non-state actors use communication technologies to construct legitimacy, mobilise support and compete in information environments. In parallel, I investigate how universities, academics and educational communities respond to destruction, displacement and institutional crisis, and how they develop strategies for continuity, recovery and transformation.
Grounded in empirical research and interdisciplinary theoretical approaches, my agenda brings together the analysis of digital communication systems, political power, conflict environments and higher education institutions.
Research Pillars
My research is organised around two complementary pillars. Each addresses a different but interconnected dimension of power, technology and social transformation.
Pillar One
Media, Political Communication and Digital Technologies
This research examines how political actors, media organisations, digital platforms and emerging technologies shape communication, political discourse and the dynamics of contemporary conflict.
It investigates how states, political movements and non-state actors construct narratives, communicate strategically, mobilise audiences and negotiate legitimacy across traditional and digital media environments. Particular attention is given to the role of social media platforms, algorithmic systems and artificial intelligence in shaping political visibility, information circulation and public engagement.
My current work in this area explores the convergence of digital political communication, platform governance, AI-mediated communication and hypermedia warfare. It also examines how technological infrastructures influence the conditions under which political narratives are produced, amplified, restricted and contested.
Core Themes
1. Hypermedia Warfare and Conflict Communication
Investigating how contemporary conflicts unfold across interconnected ecosystems of media platforms, algorithmic systems, digital infrastructures and AI-mediated communication. This research examines the convergence of physical warfare and digital information battles, with particular attention to strategic communication, techno-discursive visibility and the circulation of conflict narratives.
2. AI-Mediated Communication and Platform Governance
Examining the growing influence of artificial intelligence, platform architectures, recommendation algorithms and automated moderation systems on political communication. This includes questions of algorithmic visibility, information governance, content moderation, digital participation and the changing conditions of public discourse.
3. Political Communication, Islamist Movements and Digital Radicalisation
Investigating how political movements and non-state actors use digital media for strategic communication, identity construction, mobilisation and the negotiation of legitimacy. This includes historical and contemporary research on Islamist movements and their media systems, as well as wider questions of online radicalisation, political polarisation, right-wing populism, Islamophobia and digital identity formation.
Research interests include:
Political communication and strategic communication.
Media representation, war reporting and conflict discourse.
Critical discourse analysis and digital discourse studies.
Social media, platforms and networked political communication.
AI-mediated communication and algorithmic visibility.
Islamist movements and non-state actor communication.
Digital radicalisation, political polarisation and online identities.
Hypermedia warfare and techno-discursive visibility.
Pillar Two
Higher Education, Knowledge and Scholasticide
This research examines how political violence, structural inequalities and institutional conditions shape higher education, knowledge production and academic life, particularly in conflict-affected societies.
A central focus is the destruction of educational institutions and knowledge infrastructures, the experiences and responses of academic communities, and the conditions required to sustain and reconstruct higher education during and after conflict.
My work engages with scholasticide and the emerging concept of de-scholasticide, examining not only the destruction of universities, academic infrastructure and educational systems, but also the political, institutional and collective processes through which higher education can be restored and transformed.
Particular attention is given to Gaza and Palestine, where the destruction of universities and the disruption of academic life raise fundamental questions about institutional survival, academic continuity, knowledge sovereignty and the future of higher education.
Core Themes
4. Scholasticide and the Destruction of Knowledge Infrastructures
Examining the destruction of universities, educational institutions, academic communities and knowledge infrastructures during armed conflict. This research considers the political and institutional dimensions of the destruction of higher education, with particular attention to Palestine and Gaza.
5. De-scholasticide and Higher Education Reconstruction
Developing conceptual and practical approaches to rebuilding higher education beyond the restoration of physical infrastructure. This research focuses on Palestinian academic leadership, institutional recovery, human-capital regeneration, academic continuity, knowledge production and epistemic self-determination.
6. Institutional Resilience, Academic Continuity and Knowledge Production
Investigating how universities and academic communities sustain teaching, research and institutional functions under conditions of conflict, displacement and severe disruption. This includes digital transformation, remote academic collaboration, international academic solidarity and the development of resilient institutional models.
Research interests include:
Scholasticide and the destruction of higher education.
De-scholasticide and post-conflict academic reconstruction.
Institutional resilience and university recovery.
Academic continuity and digital learning in crisis environments.
Knowledge infrastructures and knowledge production.
Epistemic self-determination and academic freedom.
Higher education governance and institutional development.
International academic solidarity and transnational collaboration.
One integrated research agenda
These two pillars are connected by a broader concern with the relationship between power, communication, technology and institutions.
Political communication and digital infrastructures influence how conflicts are represented, understood and contested. At the same time, conflict transforms the institutions, communities and knowledge systems through which societies produce and preserve knowledge.
My research therefore approaches communication and higher education not as isolated domains, but as interconnected dimensions of political and social life.
Theoretical and Conceptual Frameworks
My research draws on several complementary theoretical traditions and develops conceptual approaches to address questions that cannot be adequately understood through a single disciplinary perspective.
Critical Discourse Analysis and Critical Discourse Studies
I use critical approaches to discourse to investigate how language, representation and communicative practices reproduce, legitimise and challenge relations of power. This includes the analysis of political narratives, social actor representation, ideological positioning and the discursive construction of conflict.
Critical Algorithm Studies and Platform Governance
I examine how platform architectures, algorithmic systems, recommendation mechanisms and automated moderation shape the production, circulation and visibility of information. This perspective considers platforms not merely as neutral communication channels, but as infrastructures that organise and govern digital communication.
Techno-Discursive Critical Analysis (TDCA)
Techno-Discursive Critical Analysis is a developing interdisciplinary framework through which I seek to integrate critical discourse studies with critical examinations of technological infrastructures and security-related dimensions of digital communication.
TDCA addresses a central limitation of conventional discourse-centred approaches: the tendency to analyse language and narratives without sufficiently examining the technological systems that shape their production, circulation, visibility and suppression.
The framework brings together three interconnected analytical dimensions:
Discursive: How language, narratives, representations and ideological positions construct political meaning.
Technological: How platform architectures, algorithms, automated moderation and digital infrastructures shape communication and visibility.
Strategic and political: How states, movements and other actors use, adapt to and contest these systems within politically sensitive and conflict-related environments.
TDCA is intended to support the systematic analysis of technologically mediated political communication, including algorithmic visibility, digital mobilisation and contemporary hypermedia warfare.
Institutional Resilience and Knowledge Reconstruction
In higher education research, I draw on institutional and organisational perspectives to examine how universities and academic communities respond to crisis, destruction and structural disruption. This includes investigating institutional resilience, academic continuity, knowledge infrastructures, reconstruction processes and the conditions necessary for the recovery of higher education systems.
Scholasticide and De-scholasticide
My work on scholasticide examines the destruction of educational institutions, academic communities and knowledge infrastructures in contexts of political violence and occupation.
My developing work on de-scholasticide considers the intellectual, institutional and practical processes required to restore higher education beyond the physical reconstruction of university buildings. It foregrounds Palestinian leadership, academic agency, knowledge continuity, institutional regeneration and epistemic self-determination.
Flagship Research Programmes
The programmes below distinguish proposed research programmes, developing analytical frameworks, and funded or completed research projects.
Proposed research programme
HYPERWAR
Under development as an MSCA Global Postdoctoral Fellowship project, with University College Dublin as the proposed host institution and Professor Eugenia Siapera as the proposed supervisor.
HYPERWAR is a developing research programme investigating how contemporary conflicts unfold across interconnected digital ecosystems and how technological infrastructures shape the visibility, circulation and strategic use of political communication.
The programme brings together research on AI-mediated communication, platform governance, political communication, conflict studies and techno-discursive visibility.
Its empirical focus examines the communication systems of Hamas and Hezbollah across Telegram and TikTok, including Arabic- and English-language multimedia material, from October 2023 onwards.
The programme investigates how political and non-state actors anticipate platform environments, adapt their communication practices, respond to algorithmically mediated visibility and recalibrate their strategies in changing information environments.
Its central analytical concern is the relationship between strategic anticipation, communicative adaptation, algorithmic visibility allocation and strategic recalibration.
HYPERWAR aims to advance understanding of contemporary hypermedia warfare while contributing to interdisciplinary research on platform governance, AI-mediated communication and the regulation of digital information environments.
Developing analytical framework
Techno-Discursive Critical Analysis (TDCA)
TDCA is a developing theoretical and methodological framework for examining the interaction between discourse, technological infrastructures and political power.
By integrating critical discourse studies, critical algorithm studies and critical security perspectives, TDCA provides an analytical approach to examining political communication in technologically mediated and high-stakes information environments.
Its potential applications include the analysis of hypermedia warfare, digital radicalisation, algorithmic visibility, platform governance and state and non-state actor communication.
Research initiative — Principal Investigator, 2023–2025 Associated institution: Institut Convergences Migration, France
This research initiative, undertaken as Principal Investigator, examines the destruction and disruption of higher education in Gaza and the conditions required for institutional recovery and reconstruction.
It investigates how academic communities, universities and educational institutions respond to extreme conditions of destruction, displacement and institutional disruption.
Its main areas of inquiry include:
Institutional resilience and the survival strategies of academic communities.
Reconstruction models for post-conflict higher education.
Academic continuity and the preservation of knowledge production.
Digital transformation and remote learning under extreme conditions.
Human-capital regeneration and the recovery of academic expertise.
Institutional autonomy, Palestinian academic leadership and epistemic self-determination.
International academic solidarity and transnational research collaboration.
The broader objective is to contribute to approaches to higher education reconstruction that move beyond physical infrastructure and address the institutional, intellectual and human foundations of academic life.
Completed research project
Media Warfare and the Discourse of Islamic Revival: The Case of the Islamic State
Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2017–2019 Newcastle University, United Kingdom
This completed project examined media warfare and the digital discourse of Islamist movements, focusing on the Islamic State. It combined critical discourse analysis with digital and multimodal methods to analyse how non-state actors use social media for ideological communication and mobilisation.
The project contributed to wider collaborations on digital radicalisation, nationalism in European public spheres and techno-discursive analysis, including work on right-wing populism, misogyny and Islamophobia in cyberspace.
Research Methods and Tools
My research adopts an interdisciplinary, multi-method approach, combining qualitative analysis, empirical digital investigation, computational techniques and institutional research.
The choice of methods depends on the research question, empirical context and nature of the material under investigation.
Discourse and Linguistic Analysis
Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA): Examining how language, ideology, representation and social power interact in political and media discourse.
Critical Discourse Studies (CDS): Investigating the production, reproduction and contestation of political and social meanings.
Systemic Functional Linguistics: Analysing grammatical and linguistic choices, including transitivity, agency and representation.
Socio-semantic analysis: Examining how social actors are represented, classified and positioned within political and media narratives.
Corpus-assisted discourse analysis: Combining qualitative interpretation with systematic analysis of large textual datasets.
Digital and Computational Research
Social Media Research: Investigating digital communication practices, platform use and online political activity.
Online and Digital Ethnography: Examining digital communities, practices and interactions in networked environments.
Social Network Analysis: Mapping relationships, information diffusion and the network structures of digital communication.
Computational Text Analysis: Exploring large-scale textual datasets, patterns of language use and discursive change.
Multimodal and Visual Analysis: Examining the interaction of text, images, videos and sound in media and digital communication.
Platform and Infrastructure Analysis: Investigating platform affordances, content moderation, recommendation systems and the technological conditions shaping digital visibility.
Higher Education and Institutional Research
Institutional and Organisational Analysis: Examining university structures, governance, organisational responses and institutional resilience.
Qualitative Research: Investigating the experiences, perspectives and strategies of academics and educational communities.
Document and Policy Analysis: Analysing institutional policies, strategic documents and frameworks for higher education recovery.
Comparative and Contextual Analysis: Examining institutional challenges and reconstruction approaches across conflict-affected settings.
Research on Academic Continuity: Investigating digital learning, remote collaboration and alternative mechanisms for sustaining academic work during crisis.
Research Software and Computational Tools
My research draws on a range of analytical and computational tools, including:
NVivo: Qualitative coding, textual analysis and thematic synthesis.
4CAT: Collection and analysis of digital platform data.
Gephi and NodeXL: Network visualisation and social network analysis.
Voyant Tools: Corpus exploration and text visualisation.
Python: Data processing, computational text analysis and research automation.
These tools support the integration of qualitative interpretation and computational investigation, while keeping the research questions and analytical framework central to the research process.
Regional and Empirical Focus
My empirical research is situated in geopolitical and institutional contexts that provide important insights into the relationship between communication, political power, conflict and knowledge production.
Palestine and Israel
Palestine and Israel form a central empirical context for my research. My work examines international media representation, political discourse, communication strategies during successive military engagements, digital political communication and the destruction and reconstruction of higher education.
The Middle East and Arab Societies
My research investigates regional political communication, media systems, Islamist movements, digital mobilisation and the role of communication technologies in shaping political power and conflict across Arab and Middle Eastern societies.
Europe and Transnational Digital Environments
My work also examines digital political communication, nationalism, radicalisation, right-wing populism, Islamophobia and platform-mediated public discourse in European and transnational contexts.
Across these settings, I approach regional research as a means of understanding broader questions about political communication, technological power, institutional structures and global information environments.
Intellectual Trajectory
My research reflects an evolving intellectual trajectory, moving from the critical analysis of international war reporting towards the empirical study of digital communication, technological infrastructures, political power and higher education in conflict-affected societies.
These phases represent the development and expansion of my research interests. They are interconnected rather than mutually exclusive, and several areas continue to inform my current work.
Phase I2008–2015
War Reporting, Media Representation and Critical Discourse
My early research focused on international media coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, particularly the representation of the Gaza War of 2008–2009 and the Israeli siege of the Gaza Strip.
Through critical discourse analysis, systemic functional linguistics and socio-semantic approaches, I examined how international news organisations construct conflict narratives, represent social actors, distribute agency and frame civilian and political experiences.
This period established the foundations of my sustained interest in media representation, political discourse and the relationship between language and power.
Phase II2015–2017
Digital Discourse and Networked Political Communication
Building on my earlier work in media discourse, this period marked an expansion towards digital communication environments and the changing relationship between political actors, media technologies and networked public spheres.
My research increasingly addressed the ways political discourse and strategic communication operate beyond traditional media institutions, opening new questions about digital participation, online political expression and the transformation of public communication.
Phase III2017–2019
Social Media, Islamist Movements and Digital Mobilisation
During my postdoctoral research at Newcastle University, I investigated how Islamist movements and non-state actors use social media and digital communication to construct identities, circulate ideological narratives and mobilise audiences.
This research examined online communication practices through discourse analysis, corpus linguistics, social media analysis and multimodal approaches, including the study of the Islamic State and other Islamist movements.
It strengthened my empirical and methodological engagement with digital platforms, online radicalisation and the strategic uses of communication technologies.
This research was supported by a Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellowship. Full appointment details are listed in the Academic Profile.
Phase IV2020–2023
Political Communication, Institutional Leadership and Higher Education
This period brought together my continuing research on political communication and digital media with a growing focus on higher education, institutional development and academic leadership.
Alongside my research activities, my role as Dean of the Faculty of Mass Communication and Languages at Gaza University brought direct engagement with university governance, academic development and institutional challenges.
My subsequent research increasingly connected questions of political conflict and communication with the vulnerability of higher education institutions and the conditions necessary to sustain academic life.
Phase V2023–Present
AI, Platform Governance, Hypermedia Warfare and Scholasticide
My current research brings together the two central pillars of my academic agenda.
In media and technology research, I investigate AI-mediated communication, platform governance, algorithmic visibility and hypermedia warfare. This includes the development of Techno-Discursive Critical Analysis (TDCA) and the HYPERWAR research programme.
In higher education research, I examine scholasticide, institutional resilience, academic continuity and the reconstruction of higher education in Gaza. This work contributes to the development of de-scholasticide as a framework for understanding academic and institutional recovery beyond physical reconstruction.
Together, these strands explore how technological systems, political power and institutional structures shape conflict, communication and the conditions of knowledge production.
Research Outputs and Related Work
My research is reflected in a growing body of academic publications, collaborative projects, empirical investigations and developing theoretical frameworks.
Details of current, completed and developing research initiatives are presented in the Flagship Research Programmes above. My teaching connects this research with academic practice and supervision.