Staff profile

Cristina's work is focused on the intersections of digital experiences and societal phenomena, with implications for education in its broadest sense, through different social theory lenses. She is currently working on a series of empirical and conceptual projects focused on critical explorations of digital well-being, Gen-AI in Education, and theory as a method. She also works with different stakeholders regarding these areas of inquiry, including school trusts, charitable organisations, Durham Council, and the European Commission Joint Research Centre.

Cristina is currently a visiting scholar with the European Commission Joint Research Centre: Directorate T – Digital Transformation and Data Digital Economy

Present funded projects include:

• Jul 2025 - Jun 2026: The Durham digital good life project: Co-producing understandings of wellbeing with young people. Collaboration with Youth Voice. Funded by ESRC IAA. Principal investigator.
• Mar 2025 - Feb 2026: Digital influence and masculinity: The impacts of digital environments on vulnerable young men's wellbeing and empowerment. Collaboration with Gladstone Terrace Centre for Young People. Funded by EPSRC/NorthFutures. Principal investigator.
• Jan -Dec 2025: Durham policy research fellow with Durham Council. This role will explore conceptions and the intersections of digital safety and well-being. Funded by ESRC IAA. Principal investigator.

Recent past funded projects include:

• 2023-2024: Co-production of digital cultural knowledge with primary school children: Fostering early digital literacy learning. Funded by Research England. Principal investigator. (link to Report)
• 2022: The Durham University Digital Literacy Clinic. Funded by ESRC IAA. Principal investigator.
• 2020-2022: From on-campus to online: International students returning to academia in the context of COVID-19. Funded by the British Academy/Leverhulme Small Grants fund. Principal investigator. (Link to Report + Research Paper)

Cristina is Co-Director (MA in Research Methods) in the Durham Research Methods Centre and MA Programme Director for the MA in Interdisciplinary Research Methods (2025- )

Cristina coordinated Student Recruitment, Marketing, & Internationalisation for the School (2022-2024); served as Programme Director (student experience) for the Master's in Education programme (2020 - 2022) and Research Environment Co-ordinator within the School of Education (2022). She also coordinated and taught the Sutton Trust and Support Progression Schools for the School of Education (Durham University widening participation programmes) between 2019 and 2021.

Cristina is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

Information for Prospective Doctoral Research Student Supervisions

I am currently accepting PhD applications that aim to explore the role of digital technology in relation to education related topics. I am particularly interested in supervising studies guided by critical theoretical lenses in the areas of inquiry: Digital Wellbeing, Gen-AI, Critical Pedagogy, and Curriculum Design. 

Research proposals focusing on such thematics can be sent to cristina.costa[@]durham.ac.uk . 

• Digital Wellbeing
• Critical Digital Literacies
• Curriculum Design for Digital Learning
• Generative Artificial Intelligence
• Educational and Digital Inequalities
• Social Theory

• 2025 - 2025: CSET 2025 – Critical studies of education and technology meeting in Durham: CSET is short-hand for critical studies of education and technology … CSET2025 is a series of academic meetings being held around world during the same week (February 17th and 21st, week 8 of 2025) on the common theme: ‘Problematising education and digital technology’. Cristina Costa led the local event in Durham on the 21st of February, 2025.
• 2025: Research in Digital Learning in Higher Education conference, : I am an organising member of the Research in Digital Learning in Higher Education conference, which will be held in Newcastle on 3rd-4th September 2025. The conference aims to provide the Higher Education sector with a space to share and critically discuss evidenced-based research and practice in digital learning. This is key to the work I have been doing on digital education.
• 2025: Visiting Scholar with the European Commission Joint Research Centre: Directorate T – Digital Transformation and Data Digital Economy: Visiting Scholar with the European Commission Joint Research Centre: Directorate T – Digital Transformation and Data Digital Economy
• 2024: Co-Editor International Studies in Sociology of Education: Co-Editor International Studies in Sociology of Education (2024 - )
• 2013: External Examining: I have been examining Ph.D and Ed.D theses since 2013. To date I have served as an examiner for Ph.D theses in the UK, mainland Europe (Portugal and Spain), Australia, and Brazil.
• 2010: Peer reviewing: I review for a series of research journals. I am a Editorial Board Member of British Journal of Sociology of Education; Technology, Pedagogy and Education;The Curriculum Journal; International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education (ETHE)
  Editorial Board Member Book Series Social Theory and Methodology in Education Research, Bloomsbury Publishing

  I was a Co-Covenor of the BERA Social Theory and Education SIG (2020 - 2023) and the BSA study group ‘Digital Sociology (2016 - 2021)

• 2005: Continuing Professional Development (CPD): I have coordinated, designed and delivered CPD activities since 2005 all around Europe. These activities have been focused on 1) the role of digital media in education, 2) the application of digital technologies for education (especially through curriculum imagination), and 3) social media in and for research. While at Durham, I have also offered CPD in research methods and am currently working on a CPD package on Advanced Digital Literacies that will connect university students with the wider community. For bespoke offers of CPD on digital literacies, citizenship and curriculum design, please contact me via email.