Commencing in June 2025
From June 2025 Federica Fedorczyk will be an Early Career Research Fellow in Ethics in AI (Democracy, Human Rights and AI) associated with Reuben College. She is also an Affiliate at the Information Law Institute (ILI) at NYU. At the Institute, she will work on AI ethics and regulation with a humanistic approach. Some key questions include whether the age of AI has created the need for new human rights, whether AI-based tools can be developed to facilitate more authentically participatory forms of democracy, and whether there should be a right to decisions being taken by humans in certain domains.
Federica’s current research explores top-down misuse of AI and its implications for democracy and individual autonomy, while also seeking innovative regulatory pathways for the democratization of AI. Her other research interests include the intersection between AI and the criminal justice system, including the innovative concept of smart prison and digital rehabilitation, as well as gender-based crimes and gender discrimination, particularly when associated with new technologies.
Prior to joining the Institute, Federica has been a Postdoctoral Emile Noël Fellow at NYU and a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at EURA (European Jean Monnet Center of Excellence on the Regulation of Robotics & AI) at Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa. After a degree in Law summa cum laude from the University of Roma Tre, she obtained a Ph.D. in Criminal Law summa cum laude at Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies in 2024, with a dissertation exploring how the use of AI is transforming the criminal justice system (‘Artificially Intelligent Criminal Justice? A Policy-Oriented Critical Plea’). During her Ph.D., she was Visiting Researcher at Fordham Law School in New York City (2023) and Doctoral Research Visiting Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law in Freiburg (2024), where she received a Scholarship for her research project.