The Faculty of Arts, Law and Social Sciences is pleased to announce the start of the Directorship of CoDE by Dr Jussi Parikka. Dr Parikka will be working alongside co-director Dr Samantha Rayner.

The Cultures of the Digital Economy Research Institute (CoDE) has been formed as a collaboration between the Faculty of Arts, Law, and Social Sciences, the Faculty of Science and Technology and Inspire to pursue research related to digital culture and the digital economy.

Alongside our other Institutes, it is part of a new impetus to engage in interdisciplinary research that pushes the boundaries of knowledge. It aims to participate strongly towards our Corporate Plan objectives of enhancing research income, research students, knowledge transfer and scholarly publications.

Jussi explains the rationale for this new institute and the need it meets:

"We need these kinds of institutes as vehicles for new modes of collaboration that work between disciplinary boundaries. The 21st century university system has to critically and actively participate in the articulate of the digital culture and economy, but the old disciplinary boundaries do not always support this work."

Recognising the opportunities that will arise locally as CoDE develops, Jussi says:

"CoDE's activities will reach toward regional industry partners for example in gaming and other key fields of digital economy. There is a huge potential for really inspired, innovative and fresh collaboration, research and products."

Jussi Parikka teaches and writes on the cultural theory and history of new media. He has a PhD in Cultural History from the University of Turku, Finland and is Reader in Media Theory and History at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge. Parikka is an internationally recognized media theorist who has been one of the key writers on the dark side of network culture, such as viruses. His books include Digital Contagions and, more recently, The Spam Book.

With Dr Joss Hands, Jussi is currently working on a £36,542 Arts and Humanities Research Council funded project 'Exploring New Configurations in Network Politics,' which began in October 2009.

For more information please contact Jussi Parikka or visit the CoDE website.

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