Niloufar Samavatipour

I am a PhD researcher interested in how media narratives shape social realities in rapidly changing societies. My doctoral research examines school bullying, gendered hierarchies, and youth violence in South Korea through the lens of Korean media (Hallyu), analysing how films, television dramas, and digital discussions influence public understandings of inequality, masculinity, and governance. By bridging media studies and development studies, I approach media not only as cultural production but as an active force in processes of social development, norm formation, and policy debate.

My academic and professional background is multidisciplinary, combining cultural and media studies with urban planning and justice-oriented research practice. Prior to my doctoral research, I worked on projects connecting urban development and land-use change with questions of compensation rights, 'right to the city' and social inclusion.

At the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, I coordinated art-based research initiatives and contributed to building a Community of Practice that brought together participants from diverse social positions, including municipal actors, academics, artists, and (un)documented migrants. In this role, I acted as a mediator between institutions and communities, facilitating dialogue across different forms of knowledge and lived experience.

Across my research and practice, I am particularly interested in storytelling and artistic methods as ways of making complex social issues accessible to broader audiences. I see narrative -whether in media, policy discourse, or art- as a powerful site where social meanings are negotiated, contested, and transformed. This perspective informs my current research, which investigates how representations of violence, hierarchy, and gender circulate between local contexts and global audiences and shape collective understandings of social change and urban governance.