Members

Sultan's main concern is how debates on memory, race, migration and religious difference after the genocide of European Jewry generate, shape, and minoritise Middle Eastern diasporas as Muslim. She explores how the memory of violence inscribes state-funded educational institutions in Germany to become arbiters of injury, hierarchising suffering and belonging with grave consequences for contemporary migrant communities and their access to legal and political rights. 

Sultan also focuses on migrant archival practices, memorial and museum spaces, and efforts for repair amidst ongoing state and police violence and the deferral of justice.

Sultan's staff profile

Recent research has had two foci: the first, explores the relation between care and control in Asian migrations (Johnson and Lindquist 2020, Johnson 2017) including British Academy funded collaborative research on surveillance and transnational migration in Hong Kong (Johnson, Lee, McCahill & Mesina 2020, Johnson, Lee and McCahill 2018).

The second involves creative practice and enquiry with and alongside migrant groups and communities including AHRC funded collaborative research on Migrant Filipino contributions to development in home and host countries that led to a virtual and travelling series of exhibitions in London, Manila and Hong Kong (beyondmyself.net) and work with and support for the itinerant museum of migration in Chiapas (MuMi) as part of the UKRI GCRF funded Global Gender and Cultures of Equality Project (exhibition.globalgrace.net).

In particular, her work investigates the role played by digital technologies in shaping processes of inequality and social change in transnational and postcolonial contexts.

Her book Technocolonialism: when technology for good is harmful examines the role of digital infrastructures and artificial intelligence (AI) in humanitarian operations, including the response to refugee flows. Based on ten years of research, the book puts forward a new concept, ‘technocolonalism’, to analyse how the convergence of digital developments with humanitarian structures, state power and market forces reinvigorates and reworks colonial legacies, which shape the relations between the global South and the global North.

In her other work, Madianou explored the phenomenon of transnational families through an ethnography of Filipino migrants in the UK and their children who remain in the Philippines. Her book Migration and New Media: transnational families and polymedia (co-authored with Daniel Miller) explores the contours of distant parenting – and the implications of technological mediation for ‘care at a distance’ and for the phenomenon of migration more broadly.

Mirca's staff profile

In her role at Goldsmiths, she designs innovation initiatives and impact projects that remove practical and cultural barriers to enterprise, from skills training to inclusive funding pathways.

Siân champions social mobility by translating university creativity into real-world opportunities, mentoring women who might otherwise be excluded from entrepreneurial networks. Her work ensures that talent is recognised and nurtured regardless of postcode, background, or privilege, demonstrating that enterprise can be a powerful tool for social justice.

Through strategic programmes, mentoring, and advocacy, Siân enables aspiring entrepreneurs to overcome obstacles, access resources, and develop sustainable ventures. Her approach combines practical support with cultural insight, fostering inclusive ecosystems where diverse ideas and voices can thrive.

Siân’s leadership highlights the transformative potential of education, innovation, and mentorship in promoting equity. By empowering underrepresented individuals to build businesses and pursue entrepreneurial pathways, she continues to create lasting impact, inspire new generations, and champion inclusion as a core principle of enterprise.