I am currently a lecturer at the PPLE college in Amsterdam where I teach various courses on politics and research methods. My research revolves around the interaction between technology, mobilisation and on- and offline repression. I am particularly interested in the information and communication environments that shape, and are shaped by, authoritarian politics. In 2020, as a research fellow with the Open Technology Fund, I conducted a 12-month mixed methods research project on the politics behind India’s internet shutdowns. For my PhD research, which I defended in July 2018, I used a mixed methods approach to investgate the effect of internet use on anti-government protest under authoritarian regimes. In this research, I studied both whether internet use plays a mobilizing role under authoritarian rule as well as how it does so. Combining in-depth qualitative fieldwork in Malaysia with large -N quantitative analyses of multiple authoritarian regimes, my research demonstrates that the internet especially plays an important role in the early stages of the mobilization process: By exposing citizens to alternative political information online, internet users are more likely to become sympathetic towards anti-governmental protest movements.
Books:
Ruijgrok, K. (2021). Internet Use and Protest in Malaysia and other Authoritarian Regimes. Palgrave Macmillan: Cham.
Glasius, M., de Lange, M., Bartman, J., Dalmasso, E., Del Sordi, A., Lv, A., Michaelsen, M., Ruijgrok, K. (2018) Research, Ethics and Risk in the Authoritarian Field. Palgrave Macmillan: Cham.
Peer-reviewed articles:
Ruijgrok, K. (2021). The authoritarian practice of issuing internet shutdowns in India: the Bharatiya Janata Party’s direct and indirect responsibility. Democratization.
Ruijgrok, K. (2020). Illusion of control: how internet use generates anti-regime sentiment in authoritarian regimes. Contemporary Politics.
Ruijgrok, K. (2017) From the web to the streets: internet and protests under authoritarian regimes. Democratization, vol. 24, no. 3: 498-520.
Non-academic report:
Ruijgrok, K. (2021). Understanding India’s Troubling Rise in Internet Shutdowns: A Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis
PhD in Political Science/International Relations, University of of Amsterdam (2018)
Master of Education, University of Amsterdam (2013)
Master of Science in Political Science / International Relations , University of Amsterdam (2011)
Social Media, Internet Studies, Internet Controls, Repression, Authoritarianism, Protests, Democratization, India, Malaysia.
Interview Bureau Buitenland (1/12/2021) De Indiase overheid en Facebook wakkeren samen moslimhaat aan
Interview Bureau Buitenland (5/7/2021) India is kampioen internet blokkeren
Op-ed het Parool (19/9/2020). De autoritaire staat is online nooit almachtig
Interview NOS Met het Oog op MorgenNPO Radio 1 (20/6/2019). Waarom de Maleisische premier twijfelt aan het MH17-bewijs
Interview Bureau Buitenland (12-11-2018) "Maleisië vordert honderden miljoenen van Goldman Sachs"
Interview Trouw (27-08-2018) "Help, we leven in een Facebookcratie!"
Interview Bureau Buitenland (23-07-2018) "Bureau Buitenland: Zomerexpres"
Interview Nederlands Dagblad (04-07-2018) "Internet verandert meer dan de dictator lief is"
Interview Bureau Buitenland (NPO Radio 1) (7-5-2018) "Alles of Niets voor de Maleisische Premier"
Op-ed de Volkskrant (17-06-2017) "Hoe wordt het internet weer van ons?"
Op-ed openDemocracy (7-3-2017) "Doing it the Malaysian way"
Interview Bureau Buitenland (NPO Radio 1) (18-11-2016) "Bersih in Maleisië"
Interview Vrij Nederland #33 (2016): "Hoe moeten we omgaan met Erdogan?"