Merlyna Lim is just awarded Insight Grant from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council for her research project“Cyber-urban Space, Social Media, and Contemporary Social Movements in Southeast Asia”. Please find below an excerpt on this news from the Carleton University’s Faculty of Public Affairs announcement:
From the call for election reform in Malaysia to protests against extrajudicial killings in the Philippines, the use of social media has contributed to mass movements and the occupation of public spaces around the world.
Professor Lim’s research will consider the interplay between social media and physical spaces in social movements in Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines.
“The project takes on spatial and historical analysis to offer an in-depth understanding of the relationship between social movements, social media and actions on the ground,” wrote Professor Lim, who holds a Canada Research Chair in Digital Media and Global Network Society. “Beyond academia, the project aspires to facilitate public discourse on social media activism in a manner that would empower marginalized communities.”
The project has been awarded $152,980 from SSHRC to support a multiple case study that will “fill a gap in the literature of the political implications of the internet and social media in the non-Western context, especially Southeast Asia.”
Profess Lim also received a Canada Foundation for Innovation grant to create the Alternative Global Network Media Lab (ALiGN), which provides a platform to help communities and groups engage with dominant narratives.