MARÍA P. ÁNGEL

I am a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Washington School of Law (advised by Ryan Calo) and a student of the graduate certificate in Science, Technology, and Society Studies (STS) (advised by Megan Finn). Check out my STS Portfolio.

My principal fields of work are Privacy Law, Law & Technology, and STS. I use STS’s theoretical and conceptual toolkit to study legal discussions about privacy regulation and algorithmic governance. My ultimate goal is to influence these discussions, by surfacing hidden tensions, highlighting possible risks, identifying strategic opportunities for intervention, and opening new conversations.

I focus on two empirical domains: (i) scholarship conversations; and (ii) public policy discussions. Through qualitative research methods, I shed light, for example, on the transformation of key working concepts used by legal actors—paradigm shifts—, the normative commitments that underpin certain proposed regulatory reforms—techno-legal imaginaries—, and the diverse ways in which different stakeholders understand the role of technology in these regulatory discussions—their theories of social change—. In this way, I unpack the multiple ways in which the social, the technical, the legal, and the cognitive interact and become entangled in these law and policy conversations.

At the University of Washington, I work as a research assistant in the Tech Policy Lab, an interdisciplinary collaboration between the University’s Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, the Information School, and the School of Law. In addition, I served as an articles editor for the Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts.

In my Ph.D. dissertation project, I examine: i) the evolution of the concept of information privacy in legal scholarship; and ii) the “techno-legal imaginaries” of American privacy law scholars. My work has been presented and awarded at conferences such as the Privacy Law Scholars Conference (PLSC), We Robot, the ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency (FAccT), the Society for the Social Studies of Science(4S)/ESOCITE, and the Internet Freedom Festival.

Prior to beginning my Ph.D., I worked as a researcher for the Colombian research and advocacy organization Dejusticia, in the Privacy & Access to Information area. Nowadays, I continue to be a member of Dejusticia as an associate researcher. While pursuing my Ph.D., I worked as a summer legal/public policy intern at New America’s Open Technology Institute (OTI) (mentored by Lauren Sarkesian). Also, I served as an expert member of the Washington State Automated Decision-Making Systems Workgroup. Recently, I interned at Microsoft Research’s Social Media Collective (SMC) (mentored by danah boyd).

I hold a dual B.A. in Law and Political Science from Universidad de Los Andes (Colombia), and a master’s degree in Administrative Law from Universidad del Rosario (Colombia). I am a Fulbright grantee, an IAPP Westin Scholar Award recipient, and a Public Voices Fellow on Technology in the Public Interest.

This website provides an overview of my work. Feel free to reach out if you’d like to know more!

What’s been going on lately

• I was included by Women in AI Ethics as one of the eight “Rising Stars in AI Ethics” for 2024.
• I was selected by The OpEd Project (in partnership with The MacArthur Foundation) as a 2023 Public Voices Fellow on Technology in the Public Interest.
• I received the Reidenberg-Kerr Award for Outstanding Scholarship by a Junior Scholar at the 2023 Privacy Law Scholars Conference!