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:

• 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.
• 2025: 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.

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.
• 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- )

She 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.

She 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: 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 will be leading 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.

Book review

• Costa, C. (online). The Left Hand of Data: Designing Education Data for Justice: By Matthew Berland and Antero Garcia. Book Reviewed by Cristina Costa. British Journal of Sociology of Education, https://doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2025.2476257

Chapter in book

• Murphy, M., & Costa, C. (2022). Social theory and methodology in education research: From conceptualisation to operationalisation. In M. Murphy (Ed.), Social Theory and Education Research Understanding Foucault, Habermas,Bourdieu and Derrida (24-43). (2nd Edition). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003156550-3
• Costa, C. (2020). The Politics of Academic Life: Professional Identities and Intellectual Selves in Neo-Liberal Times. In M. Murphy, C. Burke, C. Costa, & R. Raaper (Eds.), Social Theory and the Politics of Higher Education: Critical Perspectives on Institutional Research (87-96). Bloomsbury Academic
• Costa, C., & Murphy, M. (2019). EU Digital Media Policies and Education: The Challenge of a Digital Agenda for Europe. In S. St. John, & M. Murphy (Eds.), Education and Public Policy in the European Union: Crossing Boundaries (149-164). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04230-1
• Costa, C. (2018). Digital Scholars: A Feeling for the Academic Game. In Y. Taylor, & K. Lahad (Eds.), Feeling Academic in the Neoliberal University: Feminist Flights, Fights and Failures (345-368). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64224-6
• Costa, C., & Murphy, M. (2016). Digital Scholarship: Recognizing New Practices in Academia. In Encyclopedia of Educational Philosophy and Theory. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-532-7_259-1
• Costa, C., & Murphy, M. (2015). Bourdieu and the application of habitus across the social sciences. In C. Costa, & M. Murphy (Eds.), Bourdieu, Habitus and Social Research: The Art of Application (3-20). Palgrave
• Costa, C. (2015). Academics Online: Fighting for a New Habitus. In C. Costa, & M. Murphy (Eds.), Bourdieu, Habitus and Social Research: The Art of Application (151-166). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137496928
• Costa, C., & Murphy, M. (2015). Doxa, digital scholarship and the academy. In M. Murphy, & C. Costa (Eds.), Theory as Method in Research: On Bourdieu, Social Theory and Education (49-62). Routledge

Edited book

• Costa, C., McIlvaney, N., & Simpson, J. (Eds.). (2024). Social Media. Durham. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13961068
• Costa, C., McIlvaney, N., & Simpson, J. (Eds.). (2024). Digital Footprint. https://zenodo.org/records/13960325. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13960325
• Costa, C., McIlvaney, N., & Simpson, J. (Eds.). (2024). Digital Privacy and Safety. Durham. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13960307
• Murphy, M., Burke, C., Costa, C., & Raaper, R. (Eds.). (2020). Social Theory and the Politics of Higher Education: Critical Perspectives on Institutional Research. Bloomsbury Academic
• Breeze, M., Taylor, Y., & Costa, C. (Eds.). (2019). Time and Space in the Neoliberal University. Palgrave. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15246-8
• Research Methods across Fields of Inquiry. Routledge
• Costa, C., & Murphy, M. (Eds.). (2015). Bourdieu, Habitus and Social Research: The Art of Application. Palgrave
• Murphy, M., & Costa, C. (Eds.). (2015). Theory as Method in Research: On Bourdieu, Social Theory and Education. Routledge

Journal Article

• Li, H., & Costa, C. (online). Internationalising teacher education at home: developing empathy through the sense of otherness in language learning. European Journal of Teacher Education, 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1080/02619768.2023.2259082
• Oliveira, L. R. N., Lunardi, J. T., Calçada, M., Pereira, A. . L., de Jesuz, D. A. F., & Costa, C. (2024). HodgeRank as a new tool to explore the structure of a social representation. Frontiers in Physics, 12, Article 23. https://doi.org/10.3389/fphy.2024.1333727
• Costa, C., Bhatia, P., Murphy, M., & Pereira, A. L. (2023). Digital Education Colonized by Design: Curriculum Reimagined. Education Sciences, 13(9), Article 895. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci13090895
• Costa, C., & Li, H. (2023). Digital cultural knowledge and curriculum: the experiences of international students as they moved from on-campus to on-line education during the pandemic. Learning, Media and Technology, https://doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2023.2218097
• Li, H., & Costa, C. (2022). ‘Why Do We Think We Are Doing Everything Right [Just] Because We Do It’: What Transforms Chinese and Scottish Student-teachers’ Taken-for-granted Views in Study Abroad Experiences. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 52(7), 1170-1188. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057925.2020.1852915
• Costa, C., Taylor, Y., Goodfellow, C., & Ecochard, S. (2020). Estranged students in higher education: navigating social and economic capitals. Cambridge Journal of Education, 50(1), 107-123. https://doi.org/10.1080/0305764x.2019.1648639
• Costa, C., Taylor, Y., Goodfellow, C., & Ecochard, S. (2020). Student estrangement in higher education: identity formation and the struggle against stigma. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 41(5), 685-700. https://doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2020.1770575
• Murphy, M., & Costa, C. (2019). Digital scholarship, higher education and the future of the public intellectual. Futures, 111, 205-212. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2018.04.011
• Costa, C., Hammond, M., & Younie, S. (2019). Theorising technology in education: an introduction. Technology, Pedagogy and Education, 28(4), 395-399. https://doi.org/10.1080/1475939x.2019.1660089
• Costa, C., Gilliland, G., & McWatt, J. (2019). ‘I want to keep up with the younger generation’ - older adults and the web: a generational divide or generational collide?. International Journal of Lifelong Education, 38(5), 566-578. https://doi.org/10.1080/02601370.2019.1678689
• Costa, C., Burke, C., & Murphy, M. (2019). Capturing habitus: theory, method and reflexivity. International Journal of Research & Method in Education, 42(1), 19-32. https://doi.org/10.1080/1743727x.2017.1420771
• Costa, C., Murphy, M., Pereira, A. L., & Taylor, Y. (2018). Higher education students’ experiences of digital learning and (dis)empowerment. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 34(3), 140-152. https://doi.org/10.14742/ajet.3979
• Costa, C., & Harris, L. (2017). Reconsidering the technologies of intellectual inquiry in curriculum design. The Curriculum Journal, 28(4), https://doi.org/10.1080/09585176.2017.1308260
• Costa, C. (2016). Double gamers: academics between fields. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 37(7), https://doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2014.982861
• Costa, C. (2015). Outcasts on the inside: academics reinventing themselves online. International Journal of Lifelong Education, 34(2), https://doi.org/10.1080/02601370.2014.985752
• Costa, C. (2013). The habitus of digital scholars. Research in Learning Technology, 21(1), https://doi.org/10.3402/rlt.v21.21274

Newspaper/Magazine Article

• Costa, C. (2024). International Literacy Day: How picture books can open up discussion about social media with children

Other (Digital/Visual Media)

• Costa, C. Should schools fear or embrace the digital world
• Singh, S. (., Taylor, Y., & Costa, C. (2020). Estranged Students: (Widening) Participation Postcards

Report

• Costa, C., & Michaela, O. (2023). The Durham Digital Literacy Project. Durham: ESRC IAA
• Costa, C., Li, H., & Singh, S. (. (2022). The Online Response of Higher Education to the Pandemic: A Snapshot of International Students’ Experiences in the UK. Leverhulme Trust
• Costa, C., & Li, H. (2022). The Online Response of Higher Education to the Pandemic: A Snapshot of International Students’ Experiences in the UK. [No known commissioning body]
• Taylor, Y., Costa, C., & Singh, S. (. (2019). Estranged Students: Illustrating the Issues. [No known commissioning body]