[DATAGOV Core] [DATAGOV] December-January highlights + kick-off event

Fri Feb 13 12:01:29 CET 2026

Dear Advisory Board members
we have been trying to reach you through our mailing list over the last couple of days, but posts to the list appear to be still blacklisted (the perks of self-run infrastructure!). We apologize if you have received multiple versions of this mail, but as we have received none, we are hereby sending it again.
Have a great weekend! Stefania

From: Stefania Milan <S.Milan at uva.nl>
Date: Friday, 13 February 2026 at 00:19
To: advisory-board at lists.datagovlab.net <advisory-board at lists.datagovlab.net>

Dear Advisory Board members
we hope this message finds you well.

We are writing to share an update on our recent activities and to extend an invitation to join our kick-off event, should you be around and able to attend.

What we have been up to—December-January DATAGOV highlights
The team has been busy reading, learning, and writing. In early January, Giulia (Postdoc), Mattéo (PhD) and Sruthi (PhD) led the project "Dissecting Digital ID(ea)s: Investigating the Infrastructures and Imaginaries of Digital Identity<https://www.digitalmethods.net/Dmi/WinterSchool2026DissectingDigitalIDeas>”<https://www.digitalmethods.net/Dmi/WinterSchool2026DissectingDigitalIDeas> at the Digital Methods Initiative Winter School at UvA, where participants generated comparative findings on digital identity schemes across five countries.

Our first co-authored paper, by Giulia, Mattéo and Shruti, with some input from Jonas (Postdoc) and Stefania, is currently under review at the CPDP (Computer, Privacy, and Data Protection) conference, to be held in May in Brussels. In addition, Stefania submitted an article, now under review, to Urban Geography as part of a special issue on "Crisis-driven Digitalization and its Afterlives in Urban Governance”. Another (co-authored) article, "<https://policyreview.info/articles/analysis/open-data-meets-data-justice>Open data meets data justice"<https://policyreview.info/articles/analysis/open-data-meets-data-justice>, has been published in Internet Policy Review.

In December, Stefania  traveled to Brazil, where, alongside academic engagements, she presented the DATAGOV project at the Ministry of Education, thanks to the invitation and support of our Advisory Board member Fernando Filgueiras. She also delivered the inaugural lecture of the Francqui Chair<https://www.uhasselt.be/nl/faculteiten/school-voor-sociale-wetenschappen/sw-nieuws/francqui-leerstoel-prof-dr-stefania-milan-universiteit-van-amsterdam-aan-de-school-voor-sociale-wetenschappen> she holds at Universiteit Hasselt (Belgium) for the current academic year; the Chair unfolds in five thematic “episodes" exploring the DATAGOV research programme. As we speak, our three PhD students are in Oslo (Norway), to present at the workshop "Understanding and reimagining the Digital Welfare State”.

On the event front
We would like to flag two exciting calls for abstracts:
EASST 2026, Krakow (8–11 September): we’re convening a panel titled "Infrastructures of governance: Power and assemblages in the data-driven state”<https://nomadit.co.uk/conference/easst2026/p/18161>, with Jonas as convener.
III International Congress of Feminist Anthropology, Tarragona (1–3 July). A side—but highly topical—gig for DATAGOV. Giulia and Sruthi are co-hosting the panel "<https://congressos.urv.cat/congres-antropologia-feminista-2026/simposi/454>Digital feminist anthropology’s role in the face of online anti-feminist backlash"<https://congressos.urv.cat/congres-antropologia-feminista-2026/simposi/454>. If either of these speaks to your work, we warmly encourage you (or your students) to consider submitting an abstract!

Finally, we have been very busy planning the kick-off event. Some of you are already involved as speakers (for those we are not—expect invitations in the coming years!). We are now extending the invitation to all of you who may be interested and able to be able to fund their own travel.

The kick-off event will take place on 26-27 March 2026.
Day 1 will be an invite-only event hosted by the UvA Institute for Advanced Studies (with limited seating). If you would like to join, please let us know ASAP so we can reserve your spot.
Day 2 will feature a public lunch event, hosted by the contemporary arts space Framer Framed. A preliminary programme for both days can be found at the bottom of this email.

Organization-wise
On the organization side, a skeleton website<https://datagovlab.net/> is now online (thanks to our amazing project manager, Meg!). We are working closely with a designer to craft our visual identity, with a redesigned, expanded website to follow. Five thought-provoking blog posts are about to go live in the coming weeks, so stay turned. We are also on LinkedI<https://www.linkedin.com/company/datagovlab/>n (thanks to Sruthi): please do take a minute to follow us!

Our artist-in-residence, Federico, is currently imagining and building a digital, self-run lab infrastructure to support our experimental and collaborative work—more on this soon. He is also reworking Le Grand Jeu<https://legrandjeu.net/>, a world-building board game he originally designed and developed for another EU project, adapting it as a device for data collection and awareness-raising.

We are proud of
Sruthi has been selected for the third cohort of the Women in GovTech challenge 2026<https://govstack.global/govstack-women-in-govtech-challenge-wigtc-2026/>, organised by GovStack, the World Bank and the DPI Safeguards Initiative. The mentorship and training programme aims to empower women to design and develop safe, inclusive, and citizen-centric digital government services.

Finally, Meg will be leaving us at the end of the month to start a PhD at Goethe University Frankfurt (am Main), supervised by Azadeh Akbari. While we will miss her dearly, we are incredibly excited for this next chapter and we look forward to collaborating in new ways in the future.

All for now, and with best regards,
Stefania on behalf of the DATAGOV team

26 March — DATAGOV Kick-off: Invite-only Workshop
Location: IAS

Max. 25 participants

Goal: idea generation and collective agenda-setting for the DATAGOV project

Live visual facilitation throughout the day

10:30–11:00 | Arrival & coffee
• Informal arrival (coffee & nibbles)

11:00–11:30 | Welcome & framing
• Welcome + brief team presentation
• Project vision + Sharing goals + Introduction of Live illustrator

11:30–12:30 | Session 1 — Mapping the terrain/1
• Speakers: Mirca Madianou (Goldsmith), Jo Pierson (Hasselt U), Cecilia Passanti (Paris Cité), Niels ten Oever (UvA), Marjolein Lanzig (UvA)

12:30–13:30 | Networking lunch

13:30–14:30 | Session 2 — Mapping the terrain/2
• Speakers: Louise Amoore (Durham U) , Rob van Kranemburg (IEEE),  Fernando Filgueiras (Brazilian Ministry of Education), Rocco Bellanova (Vrij Universiteit Brussel), Bidisha Chaudhuri (UvA)

14:30–16:00 | Session 3: From tensions to directions
• Format: groupwork

16:00–16:15 | Closing
• Key takeaways for the project’s next steps

26 March — evening programme
Location: Terre Lente 

Goal: invitee-only networking dinner + fun activity over drinks

18:00 - | A look back at today: Collective synthesis
• Guided walk-through of the visual summary over drinks; participants are invited to intervene, contest, or add to the visuals. Dinner follows.

27 March — DATAGOV Kick-off: Public launch
Location: Framer Framed 

50-80 (open to the public)
Goal: present DATAGOV to the public

09:30–10:00 | Registration & breakfast

10:00–10:45 | Welcome & introduction

10:45–12:15 | Panel 1 — Governing by data infrastructure: tensions and fault lines
• Keynote panel:
Louise Amoore
Roundtable with Louise Amoore, Mirca Madianou, Rocco Bellanova, Niels ten Oever
12:15–13:15 | Networking lunch

13:15–14:45 | Panel 2 — Global perspectives on governance by data infrastructure
• Keynote panel:
Fernando Filgueiras
Roundtable with Fernando Filgueiras, Cecilia Passanti, Bidisha Chaudhuri, Rob van Kranenburg
14:45–15:15 | Closing reflections

15:15 onwards | Drinks (borrel)

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