I am happy to report that on May 13, 2016, I had my doctoral dissertation defense (or what the British call viva), and that the committee found my research to be worthy. My dissertation was titled “Augmented Dissent: The Affordances of ICTs for Citizen Protest (A Case Study of the Ukraine Euromaidan Protests of 2013-2014)” and was based on interviews with Euromaidan protesters in Ukraine and beyond, as well as analysis of social media content posted by protest communities during the Euromaidan.
The defense was intense, but I got a ton of useful questions and comments, and already have new ideas pinging in my brain about where to take this research next. I am thankful to my committee members: Kalyani Chadha, Nick Diakopoulos, Sahar Khamis, and Linda Steiner, and to my wonderful advisor and mentor, Sarah Oates.
Read the abstract for my dissertation here.
Tanya Lokot 