About me

Associate Professor in Internet Governance at Maastricht University

Digital technologies and infrastructures influence societal and political processes around the world. Bridging Political Science, International Relations and Communication Studies, my research examines how digital and internet governance shape – and are, in turn, shaped by – processes of democratisation and autocratisation.

Much of my work focuses on how authoritarian states, such as Russia, seek to influence and restrict the circulation of information within and beyond their borders and the role (inter)national platform companies play in implementing internet censorship. My research also draws attention to the efforts by (coalitions of) authoritarian states to undermine and co-opt global digital governance processes to establish standards that are permissive to state surveillance and curtailment of human rights.

• Member of The Young Academy of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW)
• Recipient of the KNAW Early Career Award 2023, awarded annually by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences for outstanding achievement

Research focus

Positions

Associate Professor in Internet Governance, Maastricht University (2026-current)

Assistant Professor in Internet Governance, Maastricht University (2019 – 2025)

CORE Fellow, Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies
(2022 – 2023)

(Non-resident) Visiting Researcher, Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki
(2019 – 2022)
Principle Investigator of the research project ‘Towards sustainable journalism for the algorithmic future’ funded by Helsingin Sanomat Foundation.

NWO Rubicon Postdoctoral Fellow, Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki
(2018 – 2019)
Project: Selling censorship – Affective framing and the legitimation of internet control in Russia

Postdoctoral Researcher, Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki
(2017 – 2018)
Project researcher. Russian Media Lab: Freedom of Speech and Critical Journalism in Russia.

Lecturer in East European Studies, University of Amsterdam
(2016 – 2017)

PhD assistantship, University of Groningen
(2012 – 2016)
PhD thesis: Memory politics in contemporary Russia: Television, cinema and the state.