Prof. Bridgette Wessels (University of Newcastle, United Kingdom)

Professor of Sociology at the University of Newcastle (UK). Former Director of the Interdisciplinary Research in Socio-Digital Worlds (IRiS) in the University of Sheffield. Her research focuses on the social innovation, development and use of digital services in social context and address the Internet and WWW in everyday life, the public sphere, community life, telehealth, digital divides and social networks.  She has written six books including 'Understanding the Internet: a socio-cultural perspective' (2010) (Palgrave) and Social Change: process and context (2014) (Palgrave).

 Prof. Wessels has been awarded the title of Visiting Scholar to pursue research activities in the School of Letters, Arts and Media, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Sydney. She is also Guest Professor at the University of Linnaeus, Sweden.

Fields of interest: the innovation and early use of telematics in policing and other public sector services (EC); digital inclusion and skills (EC); evaluation of national e-government (ODPM); Grid-based collaborative analysis of personal and area-based exclusion (ESRC); privacy and identity in digital communication (KTOF funded); mainstreaming telehealth (TSB and ESRC); participatory design of search in the digital humanities (AHRC); and the development of mobile apps for improving engagement with the Arts (MLA).