Staff profile

Cristina's work is focused on the intersection of education and digital practices through different social theory lenses. She is currently working on a series of empirical and conceptual projects focused on critical explorations of digital wellbeing, Gen-AI in education, and theory as method.

Present funded projects include:

• 2025: Durham policy research fellow with Durham Council. This role will explore conceptions and the intersections of digital safety and wellbeing. 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)

Cistina is currently 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 is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

Information for Prospective Doctoral Research Student Supervisions

I am currently accepting Ph.D applications that aim to explore the role digital technology in relation to education related topics. I am particular interested in supervising studies that are guided by critical theorectical 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.
• 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; The Curriculum Journal; International Studies in Sociology of Education; 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) raising awareness of the role of digital media in education; 2) the application of digital technologies for education (especially curriculum design), 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 please contact me via my email.

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. (2024). Digital Footprint. https://zenodo.org/records/13960325. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13960325
• Costa, C., McIlvaney, N., & Simpson, J. (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., 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., 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., 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. (2022). The Online Response of Higher Education to the Pandemic: A Snapshot of International Students’ Experiences in the UK. [No known commissioning body]
• 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
• Taylor, Y., Costa, C., & Singh, S. (. (2019). Estranged Students: Illustrating the Issues. [No known commissioning body]