Leeam Azoulay

Prior to starting the doctoral program at SC&I, Leeam Azoulay worked for a number of international NGOs, mostly in research and advocacy roles. She lived and worked in East Africa from 2015-2020. Her current research focuses on how tech companies' policies, algorithms, and affordances affect political expression in the global south, primarily in Africa and the Middle East. This includes a range of issues including platform governance, content moderation, and algorithmic amplification by social media platforms. Azoulay believes that the tech policies of governments and design choices of corporations — and their impact on people — need to be better documented and understood. This work has lead her to consider questions of technology advocacy and accountability to people and communities.

M.A., Middle Eastern Studies, CUNY Graduate Center
B.A., History and Human Rights, Columbia University