Dr Mahya Ostovar
Lecturer in Business Information Systems
J.E. Cairnes School of Business and Economics, University of Galway
Mahya's research focuses on the social aspect of information systems and digital technologies. She has investigated the role of social media in organising and social movements especially in campaigns fighting for gender equality and women's rights. Her recent research project is concerned with issues of social justice, equity and precarity in future forms of work particularly in online labour platforms.
Her teaching is mostly around digital innovation and the use of emerging technologies in business. She strives to encourage students to think critically about the social impact and ethical implications of digital technologies.
Mahya's work contributes to these SDGs
Mahya serves as an associate editor on the editorial board of the European Journal of Information Systems.
Mahya has been invited speaker and panellist at various seminars, webinars and events around issues of equality, diversity and women's rights in universities such as UCLA (US), Washington University (US), University of Bologna (Italy) and l'Université Laval (Canada).
She has also been interviewed, especially about women's rights and the recent Woman Life Freedom uprising in Iran, by various international and Iranian news agencies such as LBC, Irish Times, RTÉ, France24, BBC Persian and Iran International.
Key Target: 5.1 End discrimination against women and girls
Teaching
Implementing Digital Innovation This module's objective is to explore the strategy and implementation of digital innovation in contemporary business organisations. Mahya engages students through various case studies and real-world examples of digital disruption and successful digital businesses.
Supporting Targets: 8.4 Improve resource efficiency in consumption and production
The Future of Technology in Business and Society is designed to enable students become both consumers and producers of state-of-the-art research in the field of information systems. Students will be exposed to cutting-edge research from the field, which they will critique and reflect upon. Through a series of seminars with international invited speakers discussing their newest research in the field, students have the opportunity to learn about the newest trends in research and practice in the field of IS.
Supporting Targets: 16.10 Ensure public access to information and protect fundamental freedoms; 8.4 Improve resource efficiency in consumption and production
Engagement
Mahya has been involved in the Technact Research cluster on gender, sexualities, emergent communities and technocultural assemblages. Technact is an international interdisciplinary research cluster which consists of scholars working on the intersection of gender and digital technologies based in University of Gothenburg in Sweden and funded by the Swedish Research Council.
Mahya is also a member of the Afghan and Iranian Women's Coalition launched by IRI’s Women’s Democracy Network, IRI’s Middle East North Africa Division, and the Bush Center’s Women’s Advancement team in the US. The coalition is a six-month collaborative initiative for diverse women leaders within the Afghan and Iranian diaspora communities aiming to foster meaningful engagement and culminating in a collaborative policy brief regarding the situation of women in Afghanistan and Iran.
As is evident in these activities, Mahya strives to be an interdisciplinary researcher who combines research and activism through impactful research and engagement in academic and activist networks.
Indirect impact SDG Targets
1.3 - Implement social protection systems
1.B - Create pro-poor and gender-sensitive policy frameworks
5.1 - End discrimination against women and girls
5.2 - End all violence against and exploitation of women and girls
5.B - Promote empowerment of women through technology
5.C - Adopt and strengthen policies and enforceable legislation for gender equality
8.3 - Promote policies to support job creation and growing enterprises
8.5 - Full employment and decent work with equal pay
8.8 - Protect labour rights and promote safe working environments
10.1 - Reduce income inequalities
10.2 - Promote universal social, economic and political inclusion
10.3 - Ensure equal opportunities and end discrimination
10.4 - Adopt fiscal and social policies that promotes equality
16.6 - Develop effective, accountable and transparent institutions
16.10 - Ensure public access to information and protect fundamental freedoms
16.B - Promote and enforce non-discriminatory laws and policies
Research
Featured Publications
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References |
SDGs |
|---|---|
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Stewart, M., Schultze, U. (2019). Producing solidarity in social media activism: The case of My Stealthy Freedom. Information and Organization, 29(3). |
5 |
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Stewart, M., Schultze, U. (2018). A Performative Identity Perspective of Cyberactivism: The Case of My Stealthy Freedom. ICIS 2017: Transforming Society with Digital Innovation. |
5 |
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Mousavi, R., Stewart, M. (2019). Amazon Mechanical Turk and the reconfiguration of relations of data production. 40th International Conference on Information Systems, ICIS 2019. |
8.5 |