Margot Verhelst
Junior researcher at the research group for Media, Innovation and Contemporary Technologies, Department of Industrial Systems Engineering and Product Design, Ghent University.
Margot Verhelst joined the research group imec-mict-UGent as an intern at the end of January 2024. This internship was part of her master's program in New Media and Society at the faculty of Communication Sciences, which she finished in September 2024. For her master's thesis she conducted a textual analysis on Hegemonic Masculinity in Popular Media Culture.
Since October 2024 she joined mict as a junior researcher. She is involved in several projects. Her role involves combining research methodologies with hands-on collaboration to advance the initiatives effectively. The topics of the projects have a broad variation and span from mapping technology on user needs to make work more feasible in the care and welfare sector to an impact study on digital inclusive neighborhood initiatives and an interview study with ‘digital support givers’ to map their motivations, experiences and needs.
Her interests for future research are situated in the field of digital inclusion and the intersection of privacy, ethics, autonomy and women’s rights.