Roxana Vatanparast is a Ph.D. candidate in law at the University of Turin and a Visiting Researcher at the Institute for Global Law & Policy at Harvard Law School. She is also an Organizer of the Finance, Law and Economics Working Group of the Young Scholars Initiative (Institute for New Economic Thinking) and an Advisory Board Member of the International Bateson Institute.
Her dissertation is on the shifting conceptual paradigms surrounding sovereignty and territoriality in the digital age, specifically focusing on novel spatial and jurisdictional associations relating to big data using an interdisciplinary theoretical framework. She is interested in modes of governance of data flows, as well as how data performs governance and ordering functions.
She has experience practicing law and consulting in the private and non-profit sectors. Her experience includes practicing as a commercial lawyer in San Francisco. She also served as Co-President of the Board of Directors of the Iranian American Bar Association's Northern California Chapter. She holds a LL.M. from the International University College of Turin and a J.D. from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law.