Dr Catriona Planel-Ratna

Biography

Dr Catriona Planel-Ratna is a Senior Lecturer in Digital Marketing at Middlesex University Mauritius, with over 18 years of experience in higher education and more than 10 years of prior industry experience as an entrepreneur in interactive multimedia. She holds a BSc in Computer Science with Multimedia, an MSc in Enterprise Systems Development and Management, and a PhD in Customer Relationship Management from the University of Mauritius.

Her research sits at the intersection of artificial intelligence, digital marketing, and education, with a particular focus on preserving the human dimension during technological adoption. Since 2023, she has developed over twenty-six self-initiated, practice-based projects exploring the ethical and creative integration of generative AI into teaching and learning. These span prototype videos, AI-powered animations, virtual characters, multilingual voice synthesis, AI-generated music, visual storytelling for children, and conceptual campaign demonstrations among others, all designed to model human–AI co-creation for students and fellow educators.

Her research and teaching are guided by the conviction that AI should function as a co-creative partner rather than a replacement for human thought, and that preserving humanity, creativity, and critical thinking in the age of artificial intelligence is both an educational imperative and a deeply personal commitment.

Teaching

Catriona currently teaches on the following modules:

BA (Hons) Advertising, Public Relations and Branding:

APB1006 — Innovative Projects 

APB2000 — Audience Insights and Engagement 

APB2003 — PR and Content Creation

APB3000 — AI, Digital Communications and Marketing 

BA (Hons) Business Management:

MSO1750 — Data and Digital Technologies

She also supervises postgraduate projects on the MSc Management programme.