Dr Saide Mobayed

Saide is a critical scholar grounded in Sociology, shaped by an interdisciplinary background in Communications (BA) and Global Studies (MA). Her work interrogates how power, knowledge, and truth are entangled—focusing on the politics of knowledge production, the infrastructures through which knowledge circulates, and the contested terrains of evidence, facts, and meaning in contexts of human rights violations and inequality. Drawing on sociology of knowledge, STS, and critical data studies, Saide examines how knowledge operates across scales and mediums, and how it is implicated in struggles for social justice and accountability.

A central strand of Saide's research investigates the socio-material life of data, from global institutions to grassroots activism. Her doctoral project offered a theoretical and methodological study of feminicide data practices, tracing how data on gender-based killings are produced, mobilised, and contested across global, national, and local contexts with a focus on Mexico. This work revealed the ontological multiplicity of feminicide data and the power asymmetries embedded in their production and use—highlighting how data becomes both a site of struggle and a tool for resistance.

Research Interests

Sociology of knowledge, digital sociology, critical data studies, data feminism, science and technology studies (STS), sociology of human rights, digital methods, qualitative methodologies.

Research Projects

‘Imaginaries of Immortality in the Age of AI: an Intercultural Analysis’, Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence (LCFI), University of Cambridge, June 2024+

‘The Whistle’, University of Cambridge, April 2020—January 2023.

Teaching

Lecturer on ‘Feminicide Data Practices’, in ‘HRTS 531 Feminicides / Femicides Course’, University of Arizona, September 2022, June 2023, March 2024, September 2024

Lecturer on ‘Data Collection Methods and Digital Technologies’, University of Cambridge, Department of Sociology and POLIS, September 2022, February 2023, February 2024

Lecturer on ‘Digital Media, Everyday Life and Inequality’, University of Cambridge, Department of Sociology, (SOC7. Media, Culture and Society), February 2024

Lecturer on ‘Ethics, Care, and Emotions in Research on Gender-Based Violence’ in ‘Action Research for Gender-Based Violence Course’, University of Arizona, September 2023

Supervisor in SOC3, SOC6, SOC7, SOC12 Sociology papers, University of Cambridge, October 2020+

Publications

Books

Dawson, Myrna and Saide Mobayed Vega, eds. 2023. The Routledge International Handbook on Femicide and Feminicide, Routledge.

Book Chapters

Madrigal, Sonia, Mobayed Vega Saide, Ramírez Ramírez Ivonne and Helena Suárez Val. 2024 (in publication process). ‘Textures of Memory. Resisting Feminicide through Remembrance’ in Amaral Fernanda and Stuart Price, eds., Cultures of Resistance in Contemporary Latin America: activism, memory, and social change in the Global South.

In The Routledge International Handbook on Femicide and Feminicide:

Mobayed Vega, Saide. ‘Femi(ni)cide: A Global Archaeology of Knowledge’.

Mobayed Vega, Saide, Sonia M. Frías, Fabiola de Lachica Huerta, and Aleida Luján-Pinelo. ‘Feminicide in Mexico’.

Dawson, Myrna and Saide Mobayed Vega. ‘Femicide and Feminicide: A Growing Global Human Rights Movement’.

Collectif Féminicides Par Compagnons ou Ex, Feminizidmap, Kathomi Gatwiri, Savia Hasanova, Anna Kapushenko, Lyubava Malysheva, Saide Mobayed Vega, Audrey Mugeni, Rosalind Page, Ivonne Ramírez, Helena Suárez Val, Dawn Wilcox, and Aimee Zambrano Ortiz. ‘Feminicide and Data Activism’.

Illesinghe, Vathsala, Ahora Que Sí Nos Ven, Femi(ni)cide Watch Poland, Feminicidio.net, Observatorio de Feminicidios, Observatorio feminicidios Colombia - Red feminista antimilitarista, Shalva Weil, Myrna Dawson, and Saide Mobayed Vega. ‘Femicide/feminicide Observatories and Watches’.

Zecha, Angelika, Naeemah Abrahams, Karine Duhamel, Cristina Fabré, Alejandra Otamendi, Alejandra Rios Cazares, Heidi Stöckl, Myrna Dawson, and Saide Mobayed Vega. ‘Data Sources and Challenges in Addressing Femicide and Feminicide’.

Journal Articles

Mobayed Vega, Saide. 2025. ‘Recounting Feminicide: The Relational Accountability of Citizen Data Practices’, Feminist Media Studies.

Mobayed Vega, Saide. 2024. ‘Feminicide: Unravelling the State’s Data Infrastructures’. Critical Sociology.

Mobayed Vega, Saide and Maria Gargiulo. 2024. ‘Querying Feminicide Data in Mexico’. International Sociology.

Mobayed Vega, Saide. 2022. ‘Recontar feminicidios. Activismo de datos en México’, in Fernández de la Reguera, Alethia and Fabiola de Lachica Huerta (eds.), 25N Día Internacional de la Eliminación de la Violencia contra la mujer. Opiniones Técnicas sobre Temas de Relevancia Nacional. Instituto de Investigaciones Jurídicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, núm. 59.

Mobayed Vega, Saide. 2020. ‘Comparing Femi(ni)icide: The Perils of Turning Data into Action’, in Hemblade Helen and Helena Gabriel (eds), Femicide XIII: Data Collection. United Nations Studies Association Vienna.

Other

Alvarado García Adriana, Feldfeber Ivana, Miceli Milagros, Mobayed Vega Saide and Helena Suárez Val. 2022. ‘Crossing Data: Building Bridges with Activist and Academic Practices from and for Latin America’. CHI EA ‘22: Extended Abstracts of the 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. No.: 82.

Landré, Henrike, Mobayed Vega, Saide, Filip, Andrada, Platzer, Michael and Sixtl Chelsey (ed. board). 2019. ‘FEMICIDE XII: Living Victims of Femicide’, United Nations Studies Association (UNSA), Vienna Liaison Office.

López-Padilla, Isabel, Mobayed Vega, Saide and Laurie Chambon. 2018. ‘Georeferenced Maps on Violence against Women in the State of Nuevo Leon’. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Mexico.

Mobayed, Saide. 2017. ‘Female Genital Mutilation and Early Marriage in Kenya: The Local Response to Global Norms’. Revista CIDOB d’Afers Internacionals.

Mobayed, Saide. 2016. ‘Mobilizing Transnational Gender Politics in Post-Genocide Rwanda’. Feminist and Women’s Studies Association (FWSA).

Media Articles

Nowaczyk-Basińska, Katarzyna and Saide Mobayed Vega. ‘Imaginaries of Immortality in the Age of AI: China, Beijing, 21-25 April, 2025’, in AI2050.

Nowaczyk-Basińska, Katarzyna and Saide Mobayed Vega. ‘Imaginaries of Immortality in the Age of AI: India, New Delhi, 24-28 February, 2025’, in AI2050.

Nowaczyk-Basińska, Katarzyna and Saide Mobayed Vega. ‘Imaginaries of Immortality in the Age of AI: Poland, Poznań’, 17-25 November, 2024’, in AI2050.

Revathy Subramanian, Reetika; Michelis, Ilaria and Saide Mobayed Vega. 2020. ‘Infrastructures of Gendered Violence Reading Group’, The GendV Project, University of Cambridge.

Mobayed Vega, Saide and Tom Mayer. 2019. ‘Welcome to the Jungle: The Cruel Optimism of Amazon’s Fulfillment Centres’, Department of Sociology Blog, University of Cambridge.

Mobayed Vega, Saide. 2015. ‘Guerrero: The Origins of Violence’, La Política Online.

Grants and Projects

Co-Applicant, UK Research and Innovation Economic and Social Research Council Impact Acceleration Account Fund (ESRC IAAs) (December 2021—June 2023). Name of Impact Project: ‘A Messaging Chatbot to Support Refugees’ Documentation of Human Rights Violations in U.K. Asylum Accommodation’, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom.

PhD Scholarship in Sociology (2019-2024), CONACYT and Cambridge Trust, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom.

Independent Researcher (October 2018—October 2019), DAAD Research Grants, Centre for Globalisation and Governance and University of Hamburg, Germany.

Master’s Degree Scholarship (2016—2017), DAAD Country-related Cooperation Programme with Mexico: CONACYT Master, University of Leipzig, Germany.

B.A. International Exchange, (2012—2013), Foundation UNAM-Alfredo Harp Calderoni Excellence Scholarship; Ludwig-Maximilian-Universität, Munich, Germany.

PhD Supervisor

Dr Ella McPherson

Research Groups & Affiliations

Tierra Común (2021+)

Big Data & Society, Assistant Editor (2022-2023)

Cambridge University Mexican Society (President 2021-2022), University of Cambridge (2021-2022)

UN Studies Association Vienna (UNSA), (2019+).

Awards

PhD Scholarship (2019+), CONACYT and Cambridge Trust, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom

Best Master Thesis (2017), Erasmus Mundus Cohort in Global Studies (2015—2017). Title of the dissertation: ‘Lost in the Transnational: A Global Archaeology of Femicide/Feminicide’

Master’s Degree Scholarship (2016—2017), DAAD Country-related Cooperation Programme with Mexico: CONACYT Master, University of Leipzig, Germany

B.A. International Exchange, (2012—2013), Foundation UNAM-Alfredo Harp Calderoni Excellence Scholarship; Ludwig-Maximilian-Universität, Munich, Germany