Rocco Bellanova

Rocco Bellanova is a Research Professor at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (interdisciplinary research group Law, Science, Technology & Society-LSTS). He is the PI of the ERC Starting Grant project DATAUNION - The European Data Union: European Security Integration through Database Interoperability.

Before joining VUB, Rocco was Assistant Professor of Critical Data Studies at the Department of Media Studies of the University of Amsterdam (UvA). He also carried out his research in the department of Political Science of UvA, the Institute of European Studies of the Université Saint-Louis – Bruxelles (USL-B), and the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) in Norway. He has a double PhD in Social and Political Sciences and in Law (2014 – USL-B and VUB).

His work sits at the intersection of politics, law, and science and technology studies. He studies how digital data become pivotal elements in the governing of societies. His research focuses on European security practices and the role of data protection therein. He has co-edited the book Surveillance, Privacy and Security. Citizens' Perspectives (Routledge - 2017) and special issues focusing on digital sovereignty (2022), scholarly practices of critique (2019) and science and technology in security practices (2020). He has published in journals such as Regulation & Governance, Journal of Common Market Studies, European Security, Geopolitics, Security Dialogue, European Journal of Social Theory, International Political Sociology.

Latest publications:

“Digital/sovereignty and European Security Integration: An Introduction.” European Security,31, no. 3 (2022): 337-355 [OA – with Carrapico & Duez]

“Formatting European Security Integration through Database Interoperability.” European Security, 31, no. 3 (2022): 454-47 [OA – with Glouftsios]

“Co-producing Security: Platform Content Moderation and European Security Integration.” JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies(2021): 1-19 [OA – with de Goede]

"Toward a Critique of Algorithmic Violence." International Political Sociology 15, no. 1 (2021): 121-50 [OA – with Irion, Lindskov Jacobsen, Ragazzi, Saugmann & Suchman]

Photo by Dirk Gillissen