After many years and multiple rounds of revision, the core case study from my dissertation on the use of ICTs in disaster response in Samoa has gone live as a pre-print the journal Disasters, published by the Overseas Development Institute! For those without institutional access to the journal, or who just want to download the … Continue reading New article! “When information becomes action: drivers of individuals’ trust in broadcast versus peer‐to‐peer information in disaster response”
Samoa
New Publication! “PeaceTech: The Liminal Spaces of Digital Technology in Peacebuilding”
I'm excited to share a new collection of essays published in International Studies Perspectives that I produced with Pamina Firchow, Roger Mac Ginty, and Atalia Omer. Our essays cover a range of issues in using technology for peacebuilding and stabilization, and add to the growing body of work being done on how digital technology is … Continue reading New Publication! “PeaceTech: The Liminal Spaces of Digital Technology in Peacebuilding”
Build Peace 2015
I was invited to be a speaker on the panel on behavior change and technology in peacebuilding and Build Peace 2015. The panel was a lot of fun, with some fascinating presentations! You can find them on the Build Peace YouTube page. Here's mine: This was a particularly fun conference, pulling together practitioners, activists and … Continue reading Build Peace 2015
Presenting Research at Georgetown
I'm excited to be invited to present some of my work November 5 at Georgetown University's Center for Australian, New Zealand and Pacific Studies - here's some info, I think it'll be a fun talk!
MCIT/NUS ICTs in Emergency Survey: Replication data
I spent the last two months managing a research collaboration between Samoa's Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) and the National University of Samoa, collecting nation wide data on how people use information and information technology to respond to natural disasters. This data will feed into my dissertation, as well as be useful to … Continue reading MCIT/NUS ICTs in Emergency Survey: Replication data
Laying over, all over
I'll be headed to the ISA conference in Toronto tonight, and since I'm coming from the South Pacific the journey will be full of layovers long and short. If you are in: - Auckland, New Zealand! I will be there tomorrow all day and all day on April 1 wandering the streets and looking at things. … Continue reading Laying over, all over
Samoa Post: End of semester observations
So I've been in Samoa for a semester now, working with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and getting things in order to do dissertation fieldwork. I'll probably post again before the end of the year, but here are a few key themes that have emerged in conversation as I've developed relationships with my … Continue reading Samoa Post: End of semester observations
Samoa Update: What “Kickstarting an Emergency” got me thinking
Andrej Verity, who works at UN-OCHA, wrote a thought provoking and enjoyable post earlier this week about alternative crowdfunding and Kickstarter-type mechanisms for distributing aid funding to beneficiaries during disaster response. I posted a few short thoughts in the comments section of the post, but thought it'd be good to expand on them a bit. Hopefully … Continue reading Samoa Update: What “Kickstarting an Emergency” got me thinking
Samoa update: A little informed consent, a lot of economics
I'm embracing my status as a political scientist working in the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (MCIT). While a lot of my experience in the tech space tends to be tool-centric, I'm finding more and more that the challenges on the user end (in this case Samoa) are related to policy and economics. The … Continue reading Samoa update: A little informed consent, a lot of economics
The Fulbrighters make the paper in Samoa
We're all pretty excited to be here working with the Samoan government - we made the paper here in Apia, and so far the welcome from our counterparts and Samoan friends has been fantastic! The interviews and photos were from the welcome event the embassy and Charge d'Affaires Peter Ganser organized last week.
Charles P. Martin-Shields 