Guest PhD researcher, Nai Kalema, links up with CERTIZENS in Copenhagen

While attending the ID4D Annual Meeting in Marrakech in May 2022, Copenhagen-based CERTIZENS team members Amanda Hammar and Toke Wolff, encountered London-based PhD researcher Nai Kalema, and found there to be rewarding areas of common interest in the fields of national identification and digitsation. This prompted a guest researcher visit by Nai in November 2022 to the Centre of African Studies at the University of Copenhagen, where CERTIZENS has one of its main bases. Below, you can read Nai’s responses to some key questions about herself, her doctoral research focus, and how she sees her research relating specifically to CERTIZENS

Could you introduce yourself / locate yourself academically?

My name is Nai Lee Kalema, and I’ve been a Visiting Researcher at the University of Copenhagen's Centre of African Studies (CAS), where the CERTIZENS project is located. I am a third-year PhD candidate in Innovation and Public Policy at the UCL (University College London) Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP).  My research is supervised by Professor Rainer Kattel (UCL IIPP Deputy Director and Professor of Innovation and Public Governance), and Associate Professor Kate Roll (Innovation, Development and Purpose).

What’s the main focus of your current (PhD) research project?

I research how global governance influences public-sector digital transformations through digital identity systems. I explore the implications of their influence on digital-era governments, people’s well-being, and societies. Specifically, I critically examine global digital identity for development initiatives (such as the World Bank ID4D initiative, the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16.9, Legal Identity for All, ID4Africa) in two case settings: Kenya and Uganda.

 

How do you see your research relating specifically to CERTIZENS?

My work relates to the CERTIZENS project due to my focus on national identity in East Africa (Kenya and Uganda). Specifically, I look at digital transformations across governments through digital identity systems to learn how they transform state-citizen relations, impact people’s well-being, and cultivate new types of data relations across various scales of granularity. Also, my work explores the political-economic and ethical implications of public-sector digital transformations linked to digital identity by examining how digital states are emerging, instrumentalising data, and being influenced by different stakeholders.

 

How has your time with the CERTIZENS project influenced you?

As many academics can attest, the PhD of a student journey can be a lonely one at times as you immerse yourself deeper into a niche area of knowledge and learning. However, there are certain moments on that journey that are truly transformative, when we emerge from that area to find community around the ideas and concepts we have dedicated ourselves to as academics. My time as a visiting PhD researcher with the CERTIZENS team members at the University of Copenhagen’s Centre of African Studies felt just like such an instance—I found a fantastic community of scholars and academics based there, including Professor Amanda Hammar, Assistant Professor Toke Møldrup Wolff, and fellow visiting post-doctoral researcher Dr Alena Thiel. At the same time, I was very fortunate to overlap for a week with senior CERTIZENS researchers Dr Godfrey Asiimwe from Uganda and Dr Kojo Opoku Aidoo from Ghana. Encounters with these scholars allowed me to deepen the quality of my research and writing by talking with others and getting feedback from those clearly interested in my own work.

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