Kersti Ruth Wissenbach

Research

In February 2020, Kersti joined the Konnektiv team leading research and strategic consultation work after having frequently collaborated with us since 2016.

Kersti is a political sociologist working at the intersection of communication, technologies, and civic rights since the early 2000s. She has worked with activist groups, NGOs, and public institutions leading the strategic planning, policy advice, and implementation of diverse civic participation processes around the globe, including Rwanda, Mozambique, Nigeria, and Cambodia.

She furthermore specialized in participatory and activist research. Having focused on participatory development communication processes throughout all her higher education and career, Kersti is working with a variety of co-creative methods to enable inclusive and context-driven project and strategy design processes.

As a former researcher with the European Research Council-funded DATACTIVE project at the University of Amsterdam, Kersti is deeply embedded in the multiple dimensions of datafication and digitization. She researched civic reactions to increasing infringements on civic and human rights in transnational freedom of information activism. Kersti also frequently lectures in the Communication for Social Change Master Program at Malmö University.

Additionally, Kersti is supporting the Global Innovation Gathering, our sister organization, as Senior Content lead of the Horizon 2020 project CoAct, striving to develop a Citizen Social Science approach with coalition partners in Spain, Austria, Argentina, and Germany. She is fluent in English and German and speaks Spanish, Italian, and Dutch.