I am a digital anthropologist, ethnographer and critical media scholar whose research examines the relationships between digital media, migration, transnationalism and social change. My work explores how digital technologies and platforms shape experiences of identity, belonging, solidarity and displacement, while critically examining the power relations, infrastructures and forms of governance that underpin them.
My research focuses on digital migration and refugee media, diaspora and transnational identities, digital solidarity and humanitarian technologies, migrant storytelling and voice, and the growing role of surveillance and datafication in migration and border control. Across these areas, I combine digital ethnography with critical and ethical approaches to technology, with a particular interest in care, social justice and socially responsible digital innovation.
From 2021 to 2026, I served as Chair of the European Communication Research and Education Association’s Diaspora, Migration and the Media section (ECREA DMM), supporting an international research community and the development of doctoral and postdoctoral scholarship in media and migration. I have also led a Digital Ethnography and Ethics course for PhD researchers at the University of Zurich since 2025.
My current research examines how digital technologies shape community-based initiatives involving migrant and refugee communities. From 2026 to 2027, I am Principal Lead on the Digital Good Network-funded project Digital tools to support food sharing in a good digital society, working with Migrateful and Plateful Cafe to explore how digital tools influence the organisation, accessibility and sustainability of food-sharing initiatives.
My international research experience includes work as a senior researcher and digital ethnography expert on the EU-CHANSE-funded ReDigIm project (2022–2025), examining prosocial contribution and digitalisation across European societies, and as an ethics adviser on the AHRC-funded Digital Arts – Refugee Engagement project (2021–2022), working with partners across the UK, Syria, Turkey and Bangladesh.
My expertise has also informed policy and international research discussions. I have contributed as a speaker at the European Parliament and served as an expert adviser on datafied migration and border control regimes for the EU-funded COST Action DATAMIG.
I am the author of Mediating the ‘Refugee Crisis’: Digital Solidarity, Humanitarian Technologies and Border Regimes (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021).
| Migration Reasearch Hub ID: 6674 | |
| ORCID | https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1332-5608 |
| https://uk.linkedin.com/in/sara-marino | |
Expertise
Migration processes
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Migration drivers
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Migration forms
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Migration infrastructures
Migration governance
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Governance actors
Cross-cutting topics in migration research
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Migration research and theory
Disciplines
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Disciplines
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Subject Areas
Methods
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Other
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Qualitative research
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Types of study
Geographies
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Scope
Roles
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University of the Arts London London College of Communication
University, London, United Kingdom
Senior Lecturer -
Bournemouth University
University, Poole, United Kingdom
Lecturer in Communication -
King's College London
Other, London, United Kingdom
Teaching Fellow in Digital Culture -
University of Westminster
University, London, United Kingdom
Visiting Lecturer -
University of the Arts London Central Saint Martins
University, London, United Kingdom
Associate Lecturer -
Farnborough College of Technology
Other, Farnborough, United Kingdom
Lecturer in Research Methods
Research
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Suggested Research
Digital food and foodways: How online food practices and narratives shape the Italian diaspora in London
| Authors | Sara Marino |
| Year | 2018 |
| Journal Name | Journal of Material Culture |
What Are We Going to Do about Them? The Centrality of Borders in Fortress Europe
| Authors | Sara Marino |
| Year | 2016 |
| Journal Name | Networking Knowledge: Journal of the MeCCSA Postgraduate Network | Taxonomy | View Taxonomy Associations |
Making Space, Making Place: Digital Togetherness and the Redefinition of Migrant Identities Online
| Authors | Sara Marino |
| Year | 2015 |
| Journal Name | Social Media + Society |
Transnational identities and digital media: the digitalisation of Italian Diaspora in London
| Authors | Sara Marino |
| Year | 2015 |
| Journal Name | JOMEC Journal | Taxonomy | View Taxonomy Associations |
Cook it, eat it, Skype it: Mobile media use in re-staging intimate culinary practices among transnational families
| Authors | Sara Marino |
| Year | 2019 |
| Journal Name | International Journal of Cultural Studies |
Surviving mechanisms of power in immigration strategies: embracing Otherness and pluralisms
| Authors | Sara Marino |
| Year | 2015 |
| Journal Name | Journal of International Political Theory |
Reviews
| Authors | Kelsey P. Norman, Sara Marino |
| Year | 2014 |
| Journal Name | Crossings: Journal of Migration & Culture | Taxonomy | View Taxonomy Associations |