Alessandra Calvi

Alessandra Calvi is a PhD candidate in the LSTS and in the d.pia.lab at VUB since August 2019 and in the Equipes Traitement de l'Information et Systèmes (ETIS) lab at CY Cergy Paris Université (CYU) since September 2021. Her research interests include the relationships between data protection law and technology, gender/discrimination issues and sustainability.

In October 2021, she was entrusted with a research mandate on the EUTOPIA-funded interdisciplinary project 'Enhancing the inclusiveness of smart cities: reinterpreting Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) through intersectional gender lenses' between VUB and CYU, under the joint supervision of the legal scholar Prof. Paul De Hert and the computer scientist Prof. Dimitris Kotzinos.

Between 2019 and 2021, Alessandra was involved in the projects PERSONA and STARII. The former, aimed at developing an integrated impact assessment method for border control technologies; the latter, at supporting small and medium-sized enterprises in their compliance with the GDPR. In parallel, she also served as managing director and event coordinator of the Brussels Privacy Hub.

Alessandra holds an LLM in International and European law – Data law (summa cum laude) awarded by the VUB Institute of European Studies, where she obtained an outstanding master thesis award for her work “Interrelationships between EU data protection law and the circular economy - Data protection and environmental challenges raised by the Internet of Things”.  

Her professional experiences include a traineeship in the IT Policy team of the European Data Protection Supervisor and legal clerkships at the Tribunal of Pavia (Labour law section) and criminal law firms.