Dr Cristina Miguel

About Dr Cristina Miguel

Dr Cristina Miguel is a Senior Lecturer in Digital Communication at Leeds Business School. She is the Principal Investigator of the COLECO Erasmus+ project and an Expert evaluator for the COST Association - European Cooperation in Science and Technology.

Cristina holds a BA in Advertising and Public Relations by the University of the Basque Country (2002). After more than five years working in the Internet industry in Barcelona, she conducted a MS in Interactive Digital Communication at the University of Vic (2010). In 2012 she moved to the UK to conduct her PhD in Communications at the University of Leeds. Her PhD focused on intimacy in the age of social media.

At the University of Leeds she worked as teaching assistant (2012-2014). She also collaborated on a project exploring social media monitoring and the social media industries sponsored by HEIF V funding. In 2013 she started to work as a Part-Time Lecturer at Leeds Beckett University, and she became a Senior Lecturer in 2016. Dr Miguel achieved the Higher Education Academy Fellowship in 2017. She is a management committee substitute for the UK in the COST Action "From Sharing to Caring: Examining Socio-Technical Aspects of the Collaborative Economy" since 2018.

Dr Miguel has recently published a book titled "Personal relationships and intimacy in the age of social media". In addition, she has published book chapters and articles in several journals including Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, MedieKultur and Social Media + Society. Dr Cristina Miguel often presents her work at international conferences, such as the International Communication Association Annual Conference, International workshop on the Sharing Economy, ECREA, MeCCSA or the World Social Science Forum. She has also been invited to speak as a keynote at conferences such as the 'Dating through the Screen' conference in Lisbon.

Current Teaching

• BA Digital Marketing (H6)
• MA Social Media Marketing & Management (H7)
• BA Marketing Communications (H5)
• MA Dissertation Supervision (H7)

Accepting PhD students on the following topics:

• Sharing Economy
• Influencer Marketing
• Online Dating
• Online Privacy
• Social media and personal relationships

Research Interests

Dr Miguel has conducted research about social media data mining and personal relationships through social media.

Currently, she is involved in four research projects:

• "Examining the ethics of the sharing economy: A multi-level perspective on Airbnb in London and Barcelona" (research leader).
• "On public opinion: The perceived impact of short term rentals in Europe".
• "Food influencers on Instagram" (research leader).
• "Privacy issues that arise from the use of AI to analyse customer data".

Blog Articles

• Influencer marketing – the next big thing?