Profile

Emrys is a Senior Research fellow at the Global Governance Centre, where he leads the Robert Bosch Foundation funded ‘Digital Sovereignty Observatory’ and the Swiss National Science Foundation funded project 'Digital Transformation of Government: Strengthening or Disintermediating Democracy?’. He holds a PhD in International Development from the London School of Economics, and has held visiting positions at Cornell Tech, the London School of Economics and the Graduate Institute. His work as been supported by the UK’s Economic and Social Research Centre and the Swiss National Foundation. Emrys also leads Caribou’s Policy and Advisory Practice, in which capacity he conducts research and advises governments, multilateral organisations (United Nations, World Bank), philanthropic foundations and industry on issues around digital transformation, digital infrastructure and the implications for politics, the economy and society.

Emrys’s scholarly interests focus on digital transformation and the implications for organisations, politics and processes of international development and humanitarian response. He is particularly interested in issues of governance, particularly as they related to digital infrastructure, data and emerging technologies such as AI.

His research has been published in academic journals such as Data & Policy, Big Data and Society, Information Systems Journal, Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, Information Technology and Development and International Journal of Communication, as well as media outlets including the Guardian, Tech Policy Press and Global Policy

Peer-reviewed PUBLICATIONS

Schoemaker, Emrys, Aaron Martin, and Keren Weitzberg. 'Digital Identity and Inclusion: Tracing Technological Transitions'. Georgetown Journal of International Affairs 24, no. 1 (2023): 36-45.

Whitley, Edgar A., and Emrys Schoemaker. 'On the Sociopolitical Configurations of Digital Identity Principles'. Data & Policy 4 (2022): e38.

Schoemaker, Emrys, et al. 'Social Agriculture: Examining the Affordances of Social Media for Agricultural Practices'. ACM SIGCAS/SIGCHI Conference on Computing and Sustainable Societies (COMPASS) (2022): 476-89.

Weitzberg, K., Cheesman, M., Martin, A., & Schoemaker, E. 'Between surveillance and recognition: Rethinking digital identity in aid'. Big Data & Society 8(1) (2021).

Madon, S., & Schoemaker, E. 'Digital identity as a platform for improving refugee management'. Information Systems Journal (2021).

Schoemaker, E., Baslan, D., Pon, B. and Dell, N. 'Identity at the margins: data justice and refugee experiences with digital identity systems in Lebanon, Jordan, and Uganda'. Information Technology for Development (2020).

Srinivasan, J., Bailur S., Schoemaker, E, Seshagiri, S. 'The Poverty of Privacy: Understanding Privacy Trade-Offs From Identity Infrastructure Users in India'. International Journal of Communication 12 (2018): 1-20.

Schoemaker, E. and Stremlau, N. 'Media and conflict: An assessment of the evidence'. Progress in Development Studies 14(2) (2014): 181-195.

Policy Publications, Reports & Media

Schoemaker, Emrys. 'Governance and Digital Technology: A Shared Vision for Digital Technology and Democracy'. Development Futures Series. New York: UNDP (2024).

Schoemaker, Dr Emrys. 2023. ‘Governing Digital Public Infrastructure’. Medium (blog). 31 May 2023.

Schoemaker, Emrys. 2021. ‘The Taliban Are Showing Us the Dangers of Personal Data Falling into the Wrong Hands’. The Guardian, 7 September 2021, sec. Global development.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

• Digital transformation
• Digital public infrastructure
• Digital identity systems
• Governance of digital transformation
• Digital sovereignty
• Data governance
• Multi-stakeholder governance
• International development
• Humanitarian response

FELLOWSHIPS, GRANTS AND AWARDS

• Economic and Social Research Council (UK) Doctoral Award
• Swiss National Foundation SPARK Award
• Robert Bosch Foundation Grant