Kate Coyer

Kate Coyer is a Research Affiliate with the Center for Media, Data and Society in the School of Public Policy at Central European University (CEU), and an Affiliate of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. She leads CMDS’ work related to technology and civil society and was previously executive director of the Center. Kate holds a PhD in Media and Communications from Goldsmiths College, University of London and held a post-doctoral research fellowship with the Center for Global Communication Studies at the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania. She currently teaches at CEU and the College of Europe in Warsaw.

Her research examines the use of new and old technologies for social change and the impacts on human rights; as well as social media policy and practice; misinformation and political communication; the complexities of media, technology and politics; and community media and alternative communications. A longtime radio producer and organizer, her work supports digital rights advocacy, community media, and communication access for refugees. Her work and citations have been featured on NPR, BBC, Washington Post, Al Jazeera, New Scientist, Wired, Business Insider, and others. 

Kate has directed the Center's work on the Virtual Center of Excellence for Research in Violent Online Political Extremism (VOX-Pol), a five-year, 5.1 million EUR project supported by the European Commission led by Dublin City University. Her VOX-Pol research examined the role of social media platforms in responding to extremism online and the complexities of the relationship between technology, free expression that lie at the intersection of global security and human rights.  

A media producer and communication rights advocate, Kate has helped build community radio stations worldwide with the Prometheus Radio Project. She serves as an advisor to the Community Media Forum Europe and sits on the editorial advisory board of the Journal of Alternative Media and Communication.  Kate launched the Center’s work on Hungarian media laws in a European context, and has co-organized many workshops at CEU around digital rights with project grants and European Union funding, including a major international conference Internet at Liberty. A partial list of publications include the Alternative Media Handbook, a recent essay on harmful speech in a Berkman Klein Center collection, as well as chapters in The Handbook of Global Media and Communication Policy (ed. Mansell and Raboy); Media Freedom and Pluralism (ed. Klimkiewicz); and Internews’ Community Media Sustainability Guide. 

(photo credit: Sara M. Watson)