Mirko Tobias Schäfer is Associate Professor at Utrecht University's research area Governing the Digital Society and the Department of Information & Computing Sciences. He is co-founder and the Sciences Lead of the Data School. Mirko is a Visiting Professor at the Helsinki Institute for Social Sciences & Humanities at the University of Helsinki.Mirko studied theater, film and media studies and communication studies at Vienna University (A) and digital culture at Utrecht University (NL). He obtained a magister (master) in theater, film and media studies from the University of Vienna in 2002, and a PhD from Utrecht University in 2008.Mirko's research interest revolves around the socio-political impact of (media) technology. Together with the Data School he investigates the impact of data practices and AI on citizenship and democracy, and develops applicable solutions. He is author of the book Bastard Culture! How User participation Transforms Cultural Production (Amsterdam University Press 2011). He edited (together with Karin van Es) the volume The Datafied Society. Studying Culture through Data (Amsterdam University Press 2017) and (together with Karin van Es & Tracey P. Lauriault) the volume Collaborative Research in the Datafied Society. Methods and Practices of Investigation and Intervention (Amsterdam University Press 2024).In 2016, Mirko was a Mercator Research Fellow at the NRW School of Governance at University of Duisburg-Essen. In 2014 and 2015 he was a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Humanities at Utrecht University. In 2012 and 2013. Mirko serves on the Advisory Committee Analytics of the Ministry of Finance of the Netherlands.