Biography

Dr. JK Wilson is a sociologist and critical scholar of structural violence, currently serving as a Research Fellow at INTI University College and a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Center for Social Studies (University of Coimbra). Her work interrogates how systems of power-economic, digital, and institutional-disguise harm as inevitability, privileging elite interests over marginalized survival. Trained at Lund University (Sweden) and the University of Bergen (Norway), Wilson's research bridges grassroots fieldwork with institutional critique. Her master's thesis, From Silence to Affirmation: Domestic Workers in Uganda from Fieldwork to Empirical Agenda, exposed how neoliberal policies exploit intersections of gender, class, and ethnicity to normalize unpaid labor as "cultural tradition." This work has informed labor rights movements in East Africa, challenging frameworks that equate economic coercion with empowerment. Her PhD research at the University of Rhodes centered on violence against Black lesbians in Cape Town townships, merging peace theory with social determinants of health to critique systemic erasure in conflict studies. By reframing violence as structural rather than purely physical, Wilson's work reveals how neglect and cultural norms collaborate to perpetuate harm. Currently, she investigates how social media algorithms amplify violent political rhetoric, reshaping democratic participation. Her concept of algorithmic gaslighting-where platforms recast structural inequities as cultural threats-challenges tech-centric solutions that ignore institutional complicity. Wilson advocates for trauma-informed methodologies, prioritizing marginalized voices in academia and policy. Her findings have influenced debates on gendered labor exploitation, digital dehumanization, and carceral feminism, urging reforms that center equity over punishment.