Dr. Janine Santos

Biography

Janine Patricia Santos is an anthropologist, artist, and digital rights activist whose work explores materialities and embodied experiences in urban digital transformations. She holds a PhD in Social Cultural Anthropology from KU Leuven, Belgium, where she conducted ethnographic research on mobile phone repairers and digital youth in Lomé, Togo. Her research focuses on agentive responses to global digital inequalities, encompassing hardware hacking, bricolage, and repair practices. Her teaching and research interests span issues of global digital inequalities, (neo)colonial relations, digital infrastructure development, and decolonizing ethnographic methods. She engages critically with feminist new materialisms and AI infrastructures within cultural and creative industries in West Africa and Southeast Asia. Janine has received awards in urban studies and documentary filmmaking and has served as a Policy Advisor for European Digital Rights and the Film Development Council in the Philippines, contributing to social justice advocacy. Additionally, she has experience as a professional musician, incorporating music into her advocacy efforts.

Research Interests

Experience