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Julia Velkova

Associate Professor, Docent

I am an associate professor and docent of media and communication studies. I study the end of life of media infrastructures and the energy politics of digitalisation. Between 2023-2028 I am also a Profutura Scientia fellow.

Presentation

How are media infrastructure – like AI, satellites, algorithms, data centers or telephone and internet networks – made and dismantled, valued and devalued? For whom, by whom, and to what ends? And, how do AI and data infrastructure transform electricity grids, communities and landscapes? These are the questions that I explore in my research. 

My work is positioned at the intersection between media and communication studies, science and technology studies (STS), and cultural studies of media technologies. I take a lot of inspiration from various strands of anthropology. I am interested in the politics of power, values and inequality that arise when media infrastructures and things like “AI”, software, data centers, satellite ground stations, telephone networks, or wind turbines, are being created or dismantled.

In 2022 I was awarded the prestigious 5-year research fellowship ProFutura Scientia that supports promising early-career scholars in the humanities and social sciences to pursue cutting-edge, curiosity-driven research. Since a few years back I am also a research affiliate at the Global Media Technologies and Cultures Lab led by Lisa Parks at the University of California Santa Barbara.

You can read more about me on my private website: www.juliavelkova.org

Research

My research reflects my curvy background. Staring as a telecom engineer in my undergraduate studies in Bulgaria, and moving through philosophy, communication and cultural studies in my master degrees, I got my PhD in media and communication studies in Sweden with focus on the production, valuation and dismantling of media infrastructure.

In 2022 I initiated the Tema DataLab – a forum for collaborative co-creation and experimentation with diverse forms of doing and communicating academic knowledge.

Right now I explore the end of life of media infrastructure, and the energy politics of datafication.

I currently lead three research projects as PI:

  1. ”When Communication Networks Come to Die: Socio-cultural perspectives on infrastructure dismantling” (2023-2028) – This project is the main focus in the scope of my Profutura Scientia Fellowship.
  2. ”Megabytes vs Megawatts: Understanding Infrastructural Frictions between Data Centers and Energy Grids for Sustainable Digitalization” (2023-2025), funded by Marianne and Marcus Wallenberg Foundation, 5 600 000 MSEK. This project explores the frictions between Big Tech and AI demands for energy and electricity grids in transition.
  3. I am the Swedish PI of REIMAGINE ADM: Reimagining public values in algorithmic futures (2022 – 2025), funded by the Collaboration of Humanities and Social Sciences in Europe (CHANSE), which is a joint initiative of 27 research funding organisations from 24 countries.

 

Past Research Projects

  • From Earth Stations to Data Centers: Network buildings as transnational infrastructures and logistical media.
    (Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, 2019 - 2022)
  • Hushåll som infrastrukturknutpunkter
    (VR / Energimyndigheten, 2018 - 2022)
  • Resistans och Effekt: Smarta Elnät
    (Kamprad Stiftelsen, 2019 - 2023)
  • Kommuner i med- och motvind – Lärdomar om möjligheter och utmaningar från kommuners planering för vindkraftsetableringar sedan 2009
    (2022-2024)

Projects

Electric pole with warning sign

When Communication Networks Come to Die: Socio-Cultural Perspectives on Infrastructural Dismantling

This project examines the dismantling of critical communication infrastructure in Sweden. The study explores the societal significance of communication network dismantling and how it is imagined, accomplished, and negotiated in practice.
data center

Megabytes vs Megawatts

Megabytes vs Megawatts is a research project that studies ongoing infrastructure developments and societal imaginaries to make data centers more environmentally sustainable.
Abstract painting

REIMAGINE ADM: Reimagining public values in algorithmic futures

How does public values intertwine with algorithmic systems and futures? A project funded by the Collaboration of Humanities and Social Sciences in Europe (CHANSE), which is a joint initiative of 27 research funding organisations from 24 countries.

REIMAGINE ADM

TEMA's DataLab

I am Founder and Co-Chair of TEMA's DataLab, which is a forum for collaborative co-creation and experimentation with diverse forms of doing and communicating academic knowledge.

3D particle system that's built by a flow of strings, generated in wave.

Tema's DataLab

The DATA LAB is a forum for collaborative co-creation and experimentation with diverse forms of doing and communicating academic knowledge.

Publications

2023

Lisa Parks, Julia Velkova, Sander De Ridder (Editorship) (2023) Media Backends: Digital Infrastructures and Sociotechnical Relations
Lisa Parks, Julia Velkova, Sander De Ridder (2023) Introduction Media Backends: Digital Infrastructures and Sociotechnical Relations
Vicki Mayer, Julia Velkova (2023) The social mapping of hyperscale data center regions: placemaking, infrastructuring, curating Media backends: digital infrastructures and sociotechnical relations, p. 141-159
Lisa Parks, Julia Velkova, Sander De Ridder (Editorship) (2023) Media backends: digital infrastructures and sociotechnical relations
Vicki Mayer, Julia Velkova (2023) This site is a dead end? Employment uncertainties and labor in data centers The Information Society, Vol. 39, p. 112-122 Continue to DOI

CV

CV in short

  • 2023–now
    Profutura Scientia Fellow, Swedish Collegium for Advanced Studies and associate professor at Technology and Social Change, Department of Thematic Studies (TEMA), Linköping University
  • 2021
    Docent (associate professor) of media and communication studies, Linköping University
  • 2018
    PhD in Media and Communication Studies, Södertörn University, Sweden
  • 2011
    MA in Communication for Development, Malmö University, Sweden
  • 2007
    MPhil in Eastern Philosophy and Culture, University of Sofia, Bulgaria 
  • 2005
    BSc in Communication Technology and Engineering, Technical University of Sofia, Bulgaria
 

Network

LinkedIn Profile

Julia Velkova

Media mentions

News

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18 million from Wallenberg Foundation for LiU research

Three researchers at LiU receive a total of SEK 18.4 million from the Marianne and Marcus Wallenberg Foundation for three research projects. All are four-year projects that concern different aspects of the progress towards a sustainable society.
Julia Velkova smiling.

LiU researcher admitted to cutting-edge humanities research programme

It has now been announced who has been admitted to the “Pro Futura Scientia Fellowships” – a five-year research programme in the humanities and social sciences. One of them is Julia Velkova, assistant professor at LiU.

Organisation

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Technology and Social Change (TEMAT)

So much of our lives depend on technology. The development and use of technology creates possibilities as well as social, ethical and political dilemmas. That’s what we study at Tema T – Technology and Social Change.
Drone image of the Tema building at Campus Valla

Department of Thematic Studies (TEMA)

In an increasingly complicated world, there is a need for researchers that can handle both breadth and depth, and can collaborate across disciplinary borders. Major societal questions are studied from an interdisciplinary perspective at TEMA.
Studenthuset on Campus Valla in Linköping

About LiU

Linköping University, LiU, offers innovative education and boundary-crossing research. The students are among the most desirable in the labour market and international rankings consistently place LiU as a leading global university.

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