Andrea Medrado to deliver NU-Q Lecture on the Global South
Organized by the Institute for Advanced Study in the Global South (#IAS_NUQ), the series shines a spotlight on pressing issues affecting the Global South, providing a platform for dialogue and offering the Northwestern Qatar community insights into topics of global significance. Through these lectures, the institute aims to foster critical thinking and discussion of the most pressing challenges shaping the world today.
“I am excited to welcome Professor Andrea Medrado to our campus,” said Marwan M. Kraidy, dean and CEO of Northwestern Qatar. “At a time when digital technologies and artificial intelligence are reshaping every aspect of life, her lecture invites us to think critically about who gets to shape these systems and whose stories they tell. I am especially excited for our students, faculty, and scholars to engage with her ideas and see how communities across the region are engaging with technology in everyday social, political, and cultural questions.”
“I am excited to welcome Professor Andrea Medrado to our campus,” said Marwan M. Kraidy, dean and CEO of Northwestern Qatar. At a time when digital technologies and artificial intelligence are reshaping every aspect of life, her lecture invites us to think critically about who gets to shape these systems and whose stories they tell”
Drawing from her ongoing project Favel IA—a collaboration with Instituto Papo Reto in Rio de Janeiro—Medrado will highlight how favela communities in Brazil reinterpret AI to challenge dominant narratives of innovation and resist technological marginalization. Her talk also draws on the work of feminist and decolonial thinkers such as Djamila Ribeiro (2024), Moyo (2020), and Freire (1972) to reconsider how concepts like “Global South” and “participation” evolve within contemporary debates on technology and power.
While at Northwestern Qatar, Medrado will also deliver a community workshop with faculty and #IAS_NUQ Global Postdoctoral Scholars on critical AI and the Global South, as well as discussions with undergraduate fellows whose projects explore digital cultures and social transformation.
An associate professor and co-director of research in the Department of Communications, Drama, and Film at the University of Exeter, Medrado also serves as co-vice president of the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR). She is the author of Media Activism, Artivism and the Fight Against Marginalisation in the Global South (2023), which received the 2024 Outstanding Book Award from the International Communication Association’s Activism, Communication, and Social Justice Division.
Her current projects include The Social Foundations of Cryptography (UK’s EPSRC), Favel IA (INCT DSI Consortium, Brazil), and the recently launched Critical AI Centre (CrAIC) at the University of Exeter. Her research spans South-to-South communication, media activism, critical AI and data studies, and participatory media methods.
The lecture will take place from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. in the Events Hall at Northwestern Qatar, preceded by a reception at 5:00 p.m.
For more information about the NU-Q Lecture on the Global South and other #IAS_NUQ programs, visit www.qatar.northwestern.edu/events/2025-ias-lecture-global-south.html
