Khatija is a first year PhD student in Social Policy, Sociology and Criminology at University of Birmingham. Her research focuses on whether the digital age we live in today is the cause for or the effect of isolation or freedom.
Khatija's BA (Hons) thesis on ‘to what extent does cultural backgrounds have an impact on the way people use mobile phones’ discovered that cultural backgrounds do affect the way we use mobile phones, whether this is for professional or personal reasons. However, it was suggested that other factors such as age or generation have more of an impact than does culture. Khatija undertook her MA thesis on ‘How isolated do postgraduate student feel as a result of social media’, finding that there were mixed feelings associated with social media with some people feeling that they belonged, whilst others felt isolated, especially during COVID-19.
During and following her undergraduate career, Khatija fulfilled roles in various professional fields, including Learning Support Assistant (Academy – secondary) and Data collection Assistant, which have both helped to decide a future career in academia.