Research interests

I hold a MA degree in political science from Goldsmiths, University of London and I'm completing my PhD in cultural studies at Tallinn University. My research interests include humanitarian communication, social media activism, trauma & memory. I write regularly for feminist portals and magazines.
Selected articles


Teaching

When Susan Sontag (2003) famously noted in her “Regarding the Pain of Others” that images of disaster and conflict have become “living room sights and sounds”, she probably did not imagine the ubiquity of visuals of suffering we will be seeing daily. Today, next to billboards, magazines and news, we are faced with images of far-away disasters on social media, which has brought the distant suffering closer than ever. This seminar that, in a wider sense, is about images and power, aims to encourage students to think about a range of issues related to humanitarian communication, more specifically regarding the representation of distant vulnerable others to (Western) audiences. (Estonian Arts Academy)
Selected events & conferences 

  • 2022 November AoIR2022: Decolonising the internet in Dublin by Association of Internet Researchers
  • 2021 August: ‘Radical Film Network Meeting’ two days of talks, screenings and performances in Berlin, Berliner Union Film Ateliers (BUFA)
  • 2019 June: ‘Regarding the Pain of Others—What emotions have to do in the History of Humanitarian Images?’, workshop about humanitarian communication in Geneva by CERAH, University of Geneva/Graduate Institute; iEH2

  • 2019 November: ‘Dissolving Boundaries of Hybrid Journalism’ in Lugano by Università della Svizzera italiana
  • 2018 January: ‘Alterity and the Research Imagination Conference’ in Lisbon by Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Berlin–Tallinn
jaana@jaanadavidjants.com