Staff Profile
Dr Tina Sikka
Reader in Technoscience and Intersectional Justice
- Email: tina.sikka@ncl.ac.uk
- Personal Website: https://drtinasikka.wordpress.com
- Address: Department of Media, Culture and Heritage
School of Arts and Cultures
Rm 2.84 Armstrong Building
NE17RU
Dr. Tina Sikka is a Reader in Technoscience and Intersectional Justice in the School of Arts and Culture at Newcastle University, UK. Dr. Sikka’s most recent book, Health Apps, Genetic Diets, and Superfoods: When Biopolitics Meets Neoliberalism (2023), uses autoethnography, science and technology studies, and new materialism to examine what constitutes ‘good health’ and explore possibilities for enacting health justice. Her book, Sex, Consent, and Justice: A New Feminist Framework (2021) offers a novel approach to sexual ethics and transformative forms of justice using case studies from #MeToo, while her first book, Climate Technology, Gender, and Justice: The Standpoint of the Vulnerable (2019), draws on feminist science studies to explore the science underpinning solar climate engineering.
Dr. Sikka is also a Researcher Education and Development Fellow with the RED team in School X, contributing to postgraduate training for students across the HaSS Faculty. She specialise in a variety of qualitative methods.
Dr. Sikka’s work on EDI, and current role as Director of EDI in the School of Arts and Cultures at Newcastle University, has led to invitations to lead workshops and act as a consultant on race, gender, and the workplace, cancel culture, and equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in the public and private sectors.
Roles and responsibilities at Newcastle University:
- Director of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion: School of Arts and Cultures (2022-2025)
- Central author of Media, Culture, Heritage anti-racism statement
- Lead on Media, Culture, and Heritage’s Pedagogical, Pastoral, and Inclusivity Project
- Research Ethics Committee Member
- Board Member: University Gender Research Group
- Health and Safety Committee Member
- Currently serving as Head of Postgraduate Research (2018-2022)
- Head of Postgraduate Scholarships (2018-2022)
Education:
School of Communication, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC
SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow (2010-2012)
Supervisor: Dr. Andrew Feenberg (Canada Research Chair in Philosophy of Technology)
Faculty of Communication and Culture, York University, Toronto, Ontario
PhD. Faculty of Arts, in the Joint Graduate Program in Communication and Culture (2004-2008)
Dissertation title: ‘Recuperating Politics from Derrida: A Pragmatist Critique.’
Advisor: Dr. Myles Ruggles
Department of Mass Communication, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario
MA, Journalism and Mass Communication (2003-2004)
Thesis title: ‘The Relationship between Technology and the Future in Modern and Postmodern Thought.’
Advisor: Dr. Sheryl Hamilton
School of Communication, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC
Post-Baccalaureate Diploma in Communications (2002-2003)
School of Communication, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC
BA in Communications (1997-2002)
Other platforms and resources:
Dr. Sikka has published articles in such noted journals as The Nordic Journal in Feminist and Gender Research; The Journal of the Swiss Anthropological Association; Capitalism, Nature, Socialism; Social Identities: Journal for the Study of Race, Nation, and Culture; and Food, Culture, Society. She has also contributed interviews, articles and expertise to public-facing media outlets including Huffpost, Jacobin, Public Seminar, and The Conversation. Tina is an avid podcaster, appearing on both academic and popular podcasts, and has been invited to speak at international conferences, symposia, and corporate panels.
Dr Sikka’s current research includes the critical and intersectional study of science, applied to climate change, bodies, and health, as well as research on consent, sexuality, and restorative justice. She has published books, several dozens of peer-reviewed articles, media articles and blogs, book reviews, participated in over a dozen of podcasts, spoken at invited lectures and participated in conferences/symposiums/keynotes.
Professional Associations include:
- Consultant for UK Environmental Vulnerabilities Arising from Deployed Geoengineering. Issued by UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), 2022
- Reviewer for Bristol University Press, 2022
- Guest Editor, 2019/2020: Global Media Journal: Canadian Edition. “Mediations of Food: Identity, Power, and Contemporary Global Imaginaries.” Volume 11, Issue 1.
- Reviewer for Journal of Consumer Culture, 2018
- Manuscript Reviewer for Bloomsbury, 2017
- Reviewer for Communication Inquiry, 2017
- Reviewer for Sociological Forum, 2017
- Associate Editor of The International Journal of Environmental, Cultural, Economic and Social Sustainability, 2014
- Associate Editor of The International Journal of Climate Change: Impacts and Responses, 2014
Funding
Current and recently completed funded projects include:
- Violence Abuse and Mental Health Network Grant (£15000). ‘Sexual Violence and Lived Experience: New Futures.’
- Newcastle University Faculty Research Training Programme Fellowship (FTRP) 2022-2024.
- Newcastle University Global Fund (£593.59). ‘Disruption and Belonging: HASS PGR Experience.’ (2022)
- Newcastle University QRSPF Research to Policy Fund (£8401). ‘A qualitative, experiential, and policy-driven study of Covid-19 through the lens of gender, race, and fatness’ (2022)
- Co-I, NERC (£98, 326). ‘Making Environmental Science Equal, Diverse, and Inclusive.’ (2021-2022).
- Newcastle University QR SPF Research to Policy Fund (£3,594.99). ‘Covid-19 and Race: News Coverage of Structural Racism and the Role of John Henryism and Racial Weathering in BAME Covid-19 Deaths’ (2021)
- Newcastle University Policy Fellowship 2019-2020
- Faculty Bid Preparation (£800): ‘Anti-Carceral Feminism and Consent in the Age of #MeToo’ (2020)
- Faculty Research Fund (£1300): ‘Anti-Carceral Feminism and Consent in the Age of #MeToo’ (2019).
- Winner of the International Award for Excellence in the area of Climate Change: Impacts and Responses for my article Geoengineering in a World Risk Society. Awarded by Common Ground Publishing (2012).
Dr Sikka was the Country Coordinator for Canada in 2015 for the Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP). The GMMP works to pursue gender equality in news media. In March 2015, the project completed a global day of monitoring in which a multiplicity of news media in over 100 countries was monitored in order to present a snapshot of how women are represented in mainstream news both quantitatively and qualitatively. Dr Sikka oversaw a team of students monitoring the media, and prepared and wrote the country report for Canada.
Lecturer in Media, Culture, Heritage, January (2017-present)
Reader in Technoscience and Intersectional Justice
HSS8007: Qualitative Methods (PGR Training)
MCH8081 : Representations: Feminism, Race and Intersectionality
MCH8081: Feminist Media Studies: Gender and Intersectionality (elapsed)
MCH2065: Race and Identity
MCH2069: Research Methodologies (UG & PG)
MCH2075: Representations: Identity, Culture and Society
MCH2013: Food and Gender
MCH8177: Politics, Power and Communication
Previous Teaching experience includes:
Simon Fraser University, Fraser International College, University of the Fraser Valley (2002-2017)
Teaching Assistant:
Introduction to Communication (2002)
Readings in Marshall McLuhan (2003)
Qualitative Methodologies (2003)
Social Production of Popular Music (2009)
Media and Audiences (2009)
Introduction to Communication (2007, 2008)
Social Design (2007, 2008)
Lecturer:
International Communication (2009)
Introduction to Communication (2009)
Introduction to Mass Communication (2010)
Media and Audiences (2010)
Political Economy (2010)
Social Dimensions of Advertising (2010)
Introduction to Mass Communication (2010)
Technology and Gender (2013-2015)
York University (2004-2007)
Course Director:
Communication Theory; 3rd year (2006-2007)
Teaching Assistant:
Introduction to Communication (2006)
Technology and Culture/New Media (2004-2007)
Research Assistant:
- Supervisor: Dr. Myles Ruggles.
Intellectual property rights, philosophy of bioinformatics, genetic modification of foodcrops (corn) in Mexico (2004-2007).
- Supervisor: Dr. Rosemary Coombe
Restructured Dr. Coombe’s doctoral course in cultural studies and her graduate course on transnationalism (2006-2007)
Carleton University (2003-2004)
Teaching Assistant
Introduction to Mass Communication
-
Articles
- Sikka T. The limits of limit cases: Sexual ethics and graduate student–staff relationships. Sexuality, Gender and Policy 2023, 6(1), 16-32.
- Sikka T. Covid-19 and Race: News Coverage of Structural Racism and the Role of John Henryism and Racial Weathering in BAME Covid-19 Deaths. Javnost 2022, (ePub ahead of Print).
- Kravitz B, Sikka T. Conducting more inclusive solar geoengineering research: A feminist science framework. Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space 2022, epub ahead of print.
- Sikka T. What to do about #MeToo? Consent, autonomy, and restorative justice: A case study. Sexuality, Gender and Policy 2021, 4(1), 24-37.
- Sikka T. The Neoliberalization of Sleep: A Discursive and Materialist Analysis of Sleep Technologies. TSANTSA – Journal of the Swiss Anthropological Association 2021, 26(June), 105-121.
- Sikka T. The Foodways of the Intellectual Dark Web: To “Meat” or not to “Meat”. Social Politics 2021, 28(3), 730-754.
- Sikka T. Personalised Nutrition: Studies in the Biogenetics of Race and Food. Social Identities 2021, 27(3), 359-376.
- Sikka T. Food, Comfort, and Community: Media Coverage of Last Meals for the Dying. European Journal of Food, Drink and Society 2021, 1(2), 4.
- Sikka T. Feminist Materialism and Covid-19: The Agential Activation of Everyday Objects. NORA - Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research 2021, 29(1), 4-16.
- Sikka T. The “Embodied Multi-Material Layering” of In Vitro Meat. Techné: Research in Philosophy and Technology 2020, 24(1/2), 158-177.
- Sikka T. The contradictions of a superfood consumerism in a postfeminist, neoliberal world. Food, Culture and Society 2019, 22(3), 354-375.
- Sikka T. Barriers to Access: A Feminist Analysis of Medically Assisted Dying and the Experience of Marginalized Groups. Omega: Journal of Death and Dying 2019, 84(1), 4-27.
- Sikka T. Activism and Neoliberalism: Two Sides of Geoengineering Discourse. Capitalism Nature Socialism 2019, 122(5), 509-517.
- Sikka T. Technology, Gender, and Climate Change: A Feminist Examination of Climate Technologies. Societies 2018, 8(4), 109.
- Sikka T. Karl-Otto Apel and the Study of Communication. Journal of Communication Inquiry 2012, 36(1), 6-23.
- Sikka T. Geoengineering in a World Risk Society. International Journal of Climate Change: Impacts and Responses 2012, 3(1), 143-154.
- Sikka T. A Critical Theory of Technology Applied to the Public Discussion of Geoengineering. Technology in Society 2012, 34, 109-117.
- Sikka T. A Critical Discourse Analysis of Geoengineering Advocacy. Critical Discourse Studies 2012, 9(2), 163-175.
- Sikka T. Technology, Communication, and Society: From Heidegger and Habermas to Feenberg. Review of Communication 2011, 11(2), 93-106.
- Sikka T. A Pragmatist Critique of Derridian Politics. Contemporary Pragmatism 2009, 6(1), 87-129.
- Sikka T. Pragmatics, Poststructuralism, and Hermeneutics: An Examination of Discursive-Consensus Formation and its Ethical Implications. Journal of Pragmatics 2008, 40(2), 227-243.
- Sikka T. Ballistic Missile Defense and Articulation Theory: An Analysis of Technology using a Cultural Studies Approach. Journal of Language and Politics 2008, 7(1), 119-136.
- Sikka T. The Public Sphere, Globalization and Technological Development. Development 2006, 49(3), 87-93.
- Sikka T. The New Imperialism: Using Critical Discourse Analysis and Articulation Theory to Study George W. Bush's Freedom Doctrine. Global Change, Peace and Security 2006, 18(2), 101-114.
-
Authored Books
- Sikka Tina. Sex, Consent, and Justice: A New Feminist Framework. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2022.
- Sikka T. Climate Technology, Gender, and Justice: The Standpoint of the Vulnerable. Cham: Springer, 2019.
-
Book Chapters
- Sikka T. The Social Construction of 'Good Health'. In: Charlene Elliott and Josh Greenberg, ed. Communication and Health: Media, Marketing and Risk. Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan, 2022, pp.231-249.
- Sikka T. Andrew Feenberg and the Distorted Democratization of Technology: Covid-19 and the Case of Hydroxychloroquine. In: Philosophy of Engineering and Technology. Springer Nature, 2022, pp.65-87.
- Sikka T. An Intersectional Analysis of Geoengineering: Overlapping Oppressions and the Demand for Ecological Citizenship. In: Sapinski JP; Buck HJ; Malm A, ed. Has It Come to This? The Promises and Perils of Geoengineering on the Brink. New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 2021, pp.99-118.
- Sikka T. Food and Femininity. In: Ross K; Bachmann I; Cardo V; Moorti S; Scarcelli CM, ed. The International Encyclopedia of Gender, Media, and Communication. Chichester: Wiley, 2020.
- Sikka T. Geoengineering and Climate Change. In: Pitt JC; Shew A, ed. Spaces for the Future: A Companion to the Philosophy of Technology. Abingdon: Taylor & Francis, 2018, pp.263-280.
- Sikka T. Technofeminism and Ecofeminism: An Analysis of Geoengineering Research. In: Vakoch DA; Mickey S, ed. Ecofeminism in Dialogue. Lanham, MD, USA: Lexington Books, 2017.
- Sikka T. Contemporary Superfood Cults: Nutritionism, Neoliberalism, and Gender. In: Cargill K, ed. Food Cults: How Fads, Dogma, and Doctrine Influence Diet. Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 2017, pp.87-108.
- Sikka T. An Analysis of the Connection Between Climate Change, Technological Solutions and Potential Disaster Management: The Contribution of Geoengineering Research. In: Filho, WL, ed. Climate Change and Disaster Risk Management. Berlin: Springer, 2013, pp.535-551.
- Sikka T. A Critical Theory of Technology Approach to the Study of Network Neutrality. In: Stiegler, Z, ed. Regulating the Web: Network Neutrality and the Fate of the Open Internet. Lexington Books, 2012, pp.176-184.
- Sikka T. Articulation Theory. In: Ronald L. Jackson II and Michael A. Hogg, ed. Encyclopedia of Identity. Sage, 2010, pp.36-39.
-
Conference Proceedings (inc. Abstracts)
- Sikka T. Intersectionality in scientific spaces: climate change and medically assisted dying. In: Intersectionality in Scientific Spaces. 2018, Newcastle upon Tyne: Newcastle University Feminist Society.
- Sikka T. Intersectionality in Scientific Spaces. In: A Dialogue on Language and Labels. 2018, Newcastle upon Tyne: Newcastle University.
- Sikka T. An Intersectional Analysis of Geoengineering: Overlapping Oppressions and the Demand for Ecological Citizenship. In: Shift and Signal School. 2018, Newcastle upon Tyne: The NewBridge Project.
- Sikka T. Imagining Climate Mitigation: Geoengineering, Sustainability and Justice. In: Science Shaping the World of Tomorrow. 2015, Antwerp.
- Sikka T. Contested Spaces: Geoengineering, Developmentalism and Governance. In: 10th International Conference of the International Developmental Ethics Association. 2015, San Jose, Costa Rica.
- Sikka T. Geoengineering in a World Risk Society. In: Climate Change Conference: Climate Change and its Global Implications for People, Ethics and Equity. 2011.
- Sikka T. An Analysis of the Connection between Climate Change, Technological Solutions and Potential Disaster Management: the Contribution of Geoengineering Research. In: Klima 2011/Climate 2011: Climate Change and Disaster Risk Management. 2011, Virtual Conference.
-
Digital or Visual Media
- Sikka T. What is Cancel Culture? Interview. Huffpost https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/what-is-cancel-culture_uk_5f08a1ddc5b63a72c341535b: Huffington Post, 2021.
- Sikka T. 'What to do about #MeToo? Consent, Autonomy, and Restorative Justice a Case Study. Bowes Museum: The Power and The Virtue. https://www.blimeycollective.co.uk/onlineseries, 2020.
- Sikka T. Race Science, Ancestry Tests, and Capitalism. London: Surviving Society Podcast, 2020.
- Sikka T. Media, Ideology and Social Justice. Apple podcast: Murmurations, 2020.
- Reser A, McNeill L, Ortenberg R, Sikka T. Episode 21: How women built the environmental movement. Lady Science, 2019. Podcast.
- Sikka T. Climate Technology, Gender, and Justice: The Standpoint of the Vulnerable. New Books Network, 2019. Podcast.
- Sikka T. 035 - Climate Technology, Gender, And Justice, with Tina Sikka. General Intellect Unit, 2019. Podcast.
- Sikka T. 016 - An Intersectional Analysis of Geoengineering, with Tina Sikka. General Intellect Unit, 2018. Podcast.
-
Editorials
- Sikka Tina, Procter Heather. Universities must stop policing and surveilling international PGRs. Times Higher Education 2022. In Press.
- Sikka T. Virtuous, vulnerable and burdened: how feminism is undermined by making everything 'a feminist issue'. The F Word: Contemporary UK Feminism 2017.
- Sikka T. We Need to Address the Gender Biases in the Physician Assisted Dying Debate. The Canadian Progressive 2016.
- Sikka T. Virtuous, vulnerable and burdened: how feminism is undermined by making everything 'a feminist issue'. Sociological Imagination 2016.
- Sikka T. How Will Gender Affect the Practice of Medically Assisted Dying. Ottawa Citizen 2016, A8.
-
Online Publications
- Sikka T. Covid-19, Fatness, and Risk: Medico-Media Discourses and Stigma. Platypus: The Castac Blog: Platypus: The Castac Blog, 2021. Available at: http://blog.castac.org/author/tinasikka/.
- Sikka T. The Meaning(s) of Medical Masks: Hygiene, Fashion, Solidarity — and care. Public Seminar, 2020. Available at: https://publicseminar.org/2020/04/the-meanings-of-medicalmasks/? utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-meanings-of-medical-masks.
- Sikka T, Zollmann F, Broudy D, Klaehn J. Social Media Penetrates Every Aspect of Our Online Lives for Profit. Truthout, 2020. Available at: https://truthout.org/articles/social-media-penetrates-every-aspect-of-our-online-lives-for-profit/.
- Sikka T. Racialisation, COVID-19 and Bioessentialism. Transforming Society: Bristol University Press and Policy Press, 2020. Available at: http://www.transformingsociety.co.uk/2020/05/29/racialisation-covid-19-and-bioessentialism/.
- Sikka T. Health and Justice: Neoliberalism, Apps and the Limits of Individual Choic. Areo, 2020. Available at: https://areomagazine.com/2019/12/11/health-and-justice-neoliberalism-apps-and-the-limits-of-individual-choice/.
- Sikka T. Fugitivity: How Black Studies Can Help Us Rethink The Refugee. Portland, OR: Dismantle Magazine, 2020. Available at: https://www.dismantlemag.com/2020/07/13/fugitivity-black-studies-rethink-refugee/.
- Sikka Tina. BMI, Race, and Bodies: How Race Science Reemerges in the Unlikeliest of Places. Nursing Clio, 2020. Available at: https://nursingclio.org/2020/05/27/bmi-race-and-bodies-how-race-science-reemerges-in-the-unlikeliest-of-places/. In Preparation.
- Sikka T. Will the idea of intergenerational justice mobilize us into climate action? An interrogation of the politics of climate change. Public Seminar, 2019. Available at: http://www.publicseminar.org/2019/07/will-the-idea-of-intergenerational-justice-mobilize-us-into-climate-action/.
- Sikka T. Why we need a feminist climate science and how we might get it. Lady Science, 2019. Available at: https://www.ladyscience.com/features/why-we-need-a-feminist-climate-science-and-how-we-might-get-it.
- Sikka T. Two Arguments to Help Decide Whether to ‘Cancel’ Someone and Their Work. The Conversation Trust (UK) Limited, 2019. Available at: https://theconversation.com/two-arguments-to-help-decide-whether-to-cancel-someone-and-their-work-128411.
- Sikka T. Politics of Categorization: Race and Blood. Sociology Lens, 2019. Available at: https://www.sociologylens.net/topics/race-and-ethnicity/politics-categorization-race-blood/24530.
- Sikka T. Neoliberal capitalism and the limits of individual choice. AlterNet, 2019. Available at: https://www.alternet.org/2019/08/neoliberal-capitalism-and-the-limits-of-individual-choice/.
- Sikka T. Against Twenty-First-Century Race Science. Jacobin, 2019. Available at: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/06/racism-science-genetic-testing-racecraft.
- Sikka T. What not to watch: #MeToo and contemporary popular culture. Sociology Lens, 2018. Available at: https://www.sociologylens.net/article-types/opinion/not-watch-metoo-contemporary-popular-culture/21836.
- Sikka T. Post #MeToo: Can We Still Consume the Work of 'Bad Men'?. Feminism in India, 2018. Available at: https://feminisminindia.com/2018/09/06/post-metoo-consume-work-bad-men/.
- Sikka T. Contested Spaces: An Opening to Geoengineer the Planet?. Forum for Climate Engineering Assessment, 2014. Available at: http://ceassessment.org/contested-spaces-an-opening-to-geoengineer-the-planet-guest-post-tina-sikka-simon-fraser-university/.
-
Report
- Sikka T. Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP): Canada Country Report. Toronto, ON, Canada: Global Media Monitoring Project, 2015. GMMP: Country Reports.
-
Reviews
- Sikka T. Johanna Oksala: Feminist Experiences: Foucauldian and Phenomenological Investigations [Review]. Phenomenological Reviews 2016.
- Sikka T. Disability, Obesity and Ageing: Popular Media Representations. The Popular Cultural Studies Journal 2016, 4(1-2), 499-503.
- Sikka T. Ethical Adaptation to Climate Change: Human Virtues of the Future. Edited by Allen Thompson and Jeremy Bendik-Keymer [Book review]. Perspectives on Politics 2013, 11(3), 936-939.
- Sikka T. Mediated Society: A Critical Sociology of Media by John D. Jackson, Greg M. Nielsen and Yon Hsu [Book review]. Canadian Journal of Communication 2012, 37(3).
- Sikka T. Ethics of Evangelism: A Philosophical Defense of Proselytizing and Persuasion by Elmer John Thiessen [Book review]. Canadian Journal of Communication 2012, 37(4).