Vanessa Ugolini

Dr. Vanessa Ugolini joined LSTS in 2023 as Postdoctoral Research Fellow of the ERC Starting Grant DATAUNION project (PI: Prof. Rocco Bellanova). In 2026, she started to work in quality of senior postdoctoral researcher for the inter-institutional Weave INFRASEC project (Infrastructuring International Security), co-funded by the FWO and SNSF (with co-PIs Prof. Rosamunde van Brakel and Prof. Rocco Bellanova at VUB and Prof. Matthias Leese at the University of Zurich). Prior to joining LSTS, she received a PhD in International Studies (Cum Laude) from the University of Trento, a MA in Intelligence and International Security (with Distinction) from King’s College London (KCL), and a BA in Politics and East European Studies from University College London (UCL). She has also been awarded the “Barrie Paskins Award” for best Master of Arts Dissertation of the War Studies Department in 2019 and the prize for “Best Doctoral Researcher in International Studies” from the University of Trento in 2024.

Her interdisciplinary research sits at the intersection of critical security and science and technology studies (STS), and explores questions related to interoperability, data integration, algorithmic systems, and infrastructural developments in the context of police cooperation and border management. Vanessa is also leader of Working Group 2 – The Observatory of the COST Action DATAMIG (Data Matters: Sociotechnical Challenges of European Migration and Border Control) and co-editor of an LSTS-sponsored edited volume on the methodological encounters between law and digital technology (to be published with Routledge in 2027). In 2026, she joined the editorial board of Tecnoscienza: Italian Journal of Science and Technology Studies as Associate Board member and served as Chair of the Digital International Relations (Digital IR) section of the European Union Studies Association (EISA) PEC conference. She is also active member of many internationally-recognised scholarly associations and regularly act as reviewer for renowned international journals and academic presses.