Dr. Michael Sean Gallagher is a Senior Lecturer in Digital Education at the University of Edinburgh and Co-Director of the Centre for Research in Digital Education. His published work explores critical perspectives on educational technologies, the mobilities of digital education—particularly for marginalized groups—and futures educational research.

Dr. Gallagher is the Principal Investigator (PI) on several significant projects, including the Mastercard Foundation-funded Practitioner Networks and Digital Inclusion for Higher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE)-funded Connected Policy, Practice, and Accreditation: Connected Refugee Education in Ugandan Higher Education. He is also PI on the GCRF-funded Digital Education Africa cluster, Co-Investigator (Co-I) on the Digital Education for Change Makers in Sub-Saharan Africa project, and the Mastercard Foundation-funded Foundations for All project, among others. Additionally, he serves as a member of the Education Beyond Borders Operational & Advisory Group and was a core team member of the Future University Lab at Una Europa (2019-2023). He also collaborates with the Connected Learning in Crisis Consortium on forced displacement research throughout Sub-Saharan Africa.

As Co-Founder and Chief Digital Education Officer of Panoply Digital, Dr. Gallagher leads the consultancy in promoting the appropriate use of educational technologies in developing contexts.

His research centers on the critical examination of the mobilities of groups and sectors in flux, exploring how technology is used to structure and manage these movements. In the context of post-Brexit dynamics, increasing international student populations, displaced peoples, and the rise of global edtech, his work focuses on frameworks to address the challenges that may hinder educational progress in development contexts, particularly in higher education's role as a vehicle for social mobility.