[DATAGOV Core] DATAGOV Advisory Board Newsletter | March–June 2026

[Stefania Milan]

Dear Advisory Board,

Ahead of the summer break, here is a brief overview of DATAGOV's activities from March through June. Overall, the past months have brought strong progress across research, publications, dissemination, and community-building — a solid foundation for the project's next stage. In what follows, we share the highlights.
*Kick-off and research progress*
DATAGOV officially launched with a two-day Kick-Off Event in Amsterdam (26–27 March). Day one, an invite-only workshop at the UvA Institute for Advanced Study, brought together 25 scholars, including several members of the Advisory and Ethics Boards — including Mirca Madianou, Jo Pierson, Cecilia Passanti, Niels ten Oever, Louise Amoore, Fernando Filgueiras, and Bidisha Chaudhuri — to map the field and identify shared research directions. Day two opened to the public at the renowned Amsterdam platform for contemporary art FramerFramed, with keynotes by Louise Amoore and Fernando Filgueiras following by two panel exciting discussions. You can read this<https://datagovlab.net/blog/post-6.html> and this blogpost<https://datagovlab.net/blog/post-7.html>, and the event report<ttps://datagovlab.net/events/datagov_kickoff_2026.html> which include some action pictures.
We are overjoyed that all three PhD candidates — Carina, Mattéo, and Sruthi — passed their pilot study (=1st year) evaluations and will continue beyond the probationary period. Their pilots covered state identification infrastructures in Brazil (Carina), biometric interoperability in EU security governance (Mattéo), and digital public infrastructure as governance rationality (Sruthi). Fieldwork preparations also advanced: Mattéo arranged interviews with Europol staff and secured field access to NATO innovation spaces; Giulia contributed to analyse interviews on Brazil's E-SUS healthcare digitalization plan, informing her upcoming DATAGOV fieldwork there.
>From 19–21 June, the whole team headed to Zeeland, in Southern Netherlands, for a weekend of work and team building — including the first trial run of the new participatory game "CAMPO", designed by Federico — and, by all accounts, had a blast.

*Publications*
Several journal articles and book chapters have been submitted or are forthcoming, including Stefania's chapter "Standardizing Democracy: AI and the Transformation of Agonistic Politics" (in the forthcoming book Artificial Intelligence and Democracy edited by Fernando Filgueiras, member of this Advisory Board). Jonas published article on infrastructural inversion (with Jo Pierson) (link)<https://tidsskrift.dk/privacy_studies_journal/article/view/161766>; and Giulia’ paper on infrastructural inequalities will appear in the CPDP book (see below). Three DATAGOV working papers are also in preparation for release in the fall, covering the project's theoretical framework, methods, and ethics.
Two books are emerging from the DATAGOV team this year,  though not fully credited to the project: *Data Protection, Privacy and Artificial Intelligence: The World Is Watching<https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/data-protection-privacy-and-artificial-intelligence-volume-18-9781509993123/>* (Hart/Bloomsbury), edited by Jonas; and *Transfeminist Digital Care* (Institute of Network Cultures), by Giulia, released at the end of the month.
The team also kept up a steady stream of blog posts this spring (all at datagovlab.net/blog/), for example:

  *   "No Opting Out? Reflections from the Digital Welfare State Workshop<https://datagovlab.net/blog/post-5.html>" by Carina, Mattéo, and Sruthi
  *   "Reflections from the Statecraft, Sovereignty and Digital Government Symposium<https://datagovlab.net/blog/post-8.html>" by Sruthi
  *   “DATAGOV goes CPDP: Converging at the Intersection of Data, Rights, and Power<https://datagovlab.net/blog/post-9.html>" by Jonas, Sruthi, and Giulia
*Conferences and dissemination*
DATAGOV maintained a strong international presence: Computer, Privacy, and Data Protection (CPDP) conference in Brussels in May (co-directed by Jonas), the Goldsmiths symposium on Statecraft, Sovereignty and Digital Government (Sruthi, London, April), the III International Congress of Feminist Anthropology (Giulia, Barcelona in June), and the Surveillance Studies Network conference in Lille (Mattéo, in June). For the upcoming EASST 2026, DATAGOV has organized the panel "Infrastructures of Governance", thanks to Jonas, who will chair it with Carina.
Stefania concluded her Francqui Chair lecture series at Hasselt University<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>, five public lectures delivered across the 2025–26 academic year on data infrastructures, democracy, and the state, closing in May with "Inequality by Design? Exclusion and Invisibility in the Data-Driven State”. Together, the lectures outlined the conceptual foundations and research agenda of the DATAGOV project.
Other dissemination include Sruthi on the radio programme "Feminist Futures – Data & Power<https://soundcloud.com/gimic-radio/women-in-tech-w-sruthi-vanguri-sophie-luise-feith-sarah-zadeh-gimic-x-avatarfm-at-cpdp-22-may-2026-19?in=gimic-radio/sets/gimic-x-avatar-fm-at-cpdp&si=b568c8513ade456f985b8074faa76f7e&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing>"  and Giulia's CPDP talk on Avatar.FM and on YouTube<https://youtu.be/mdS3ckh7oag?si=NF4PqlPyFaMv6vtx>. The DATAGOV LinkedIn page<https://www.linkedin.com/company/datagovlab/?viewAsMember=true>, curated largely by Sruthi, continues going strong: do follow us if you haven’t yet.

*Methodological innovation and infrastructure*
Federico developed and trialed a new co-design game, "CAMPO," at the retreat, with a second, hybrid-format variant now in progress. Giulia met with Ray, DATAGOV's partner designer, to plan the permanent project website, on track for a post-summer launch.
Since March, the team has also migrated the project's entire digital infrastructure from Microsoft to NextCloud, an open-source environment provided by SURF.nl, the IT cooperative of Dutch education and research. Stefania has joined a small advisory group supporting the UvA’s Executive Board on the future of the NextCloud pilot and technology sovereignty.

*Team news*
We will shortly be hiring a student assistant and a postdoc based in South Africa to lead the country/regional case study. Good candidates in mind? Please reach out.

We thank you for your enduring support!
Best regards,
Stefania on behalf of the DATAGOV team (datagovlab.net)


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