Two Fellows Join CMDS Team

We are proud to announce that Veszna Wessenauer and Fardin Alikhah have joined Center for Media, Data and Society as Resident Fellows.

Veszna Wessenauer is a Research Analyst with Ranking Digital Rights, working on Index research. She holds an MA in Human Rights from Central European University, where she focused on issues related to internet governance and media freedom. Prior to joining RDR, she worked with several Hungarian and international NGOs, including as a policy analyst for Political Capital, a Hungarian think tank focused on democracy and rule of law in Central Europe. The focus of her work has been on internet governance, digital rights, disinformation, active citizenship, and civic engagement. She has also previously served as a fellow at CMDS, researching topics related to journalistic source protection, online privacy and data protection, and online political extremism.

Fardin Alikhah received his PhD in Political Sociology from the University of Allameh Tabatabai in Tehran. His teaching and research interests include urban studies, transnational TVs and new media in the Middle East, sociology of music. In the field of media studies, he has been researching satellite TVs from a communication and sociological point of view for nearly 10 years. In addition to satellite TVs, he is interested in studying new media. He is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Guilan, Department of Social Sciences and a member of International Association of Media and Communication Researchers (IAMCR), International Association for Impact Assessment (IAIA) and International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM). He is hosted by CMDS through CEU’s Visiting Research Fellowship.