I'M AN ACADEMIC

I am a Post-Doctoral Researcher in Digital Sociology at the University Complutense of Madrid (P2P Models) and Lecturer at the University of Amsterdam (New Media & Digital Culture). I hold a PhD degree in Digital Sociology at the University of Milan (NASP). 
My areas of expertise are digital platforms affordances, socio-technical imaginaries, gender and data justice.
At the end of 2018, I became the promoter of the Italian campaign #intimitàviolata, which succeeded in approving a law reform, i.e. art.612-ter in the law 'Codice Rosso' of 17/07/19, that now criminalizes in Italy the non-consensual sharing of intimate images (i.e. revenge porn).
My political engagement goes together with the research on harassment and inequalities in the digital space. I published a book with Lucia Bainotti in which we analyse the problem of cyberviolence against women and girls in male-populated digital environments, such as Telegram groups and channels. 
I also work as a teenager educator to teach positive and inclusive information regarding 'sexuality+' and the digital society, together with my association Virgin & Martyr.
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I'M A DOCTORAL STUDENT

I was born in Valdobbiadene (TV) in 1991.
I am a PhD student in Digital Sociology at the University of Milan (NASP).
I hold a MA in Social Communication from the University Complutense of Madrid, and a BA in Political Science from the University of Padua. My areas of expertise are digital rights and data justice, and I am currently writing a PhD thesis on Blockchain social applications to research on new sets of power dynamics and algorithmic bias in digitally-mediated contexts.
I have a broad experience of lecturing, teaching and speaking at conferences, as well as a strong attested experience in building new strategies of digital communication for digital rights.
I have collaborated with different human rights organizations, in particular Amnesty International, and I have been the promoter of the Italian campaign #intimitàviolata to ask for introducing a law against revenge porn (officially approved on 17/07/19).

I'M A DOCTORAL STUDENT

I was born in Valdobbiadene (TV) in 1991.
I am a PhD student in Digital Sociology at the University of Milan (NASP).
I hold a MA in Social Communication from the University Complutense of Madrid, and a BA in Political Science from the University of Padua. My areas of expertise are digital rights and data justice, and I am currently writing a PhD thesis on Blockchain social applications to research on new sets of power dynamics and algorithmic bias in digitally-mediated contexts.
I have a broad experience of lecturing, teaching and speaking at conferences, as well as a strong attested experience in building new strategies of digital communication for digital rights.
I have collaborated with different human rights organizations, in particular Amnesty International, and I have been the promoter of the Italian campaign #intimitàviolata to ask for introducing a law against revenge porn (officially approved on 17/07/19).

I'M A DOCTORAL STUDENT

I was born in Valdobbiadene (TV) in 1991.
I am a post-doctoral researcher in Digital Sociology at the University Complutense of Madrid (see P2P Models).
I hold a PhD degree in Sociology and Methodology of Social Research at the University of Milan (NASP). 
My areas of expertise are human/digital rights, social movements and data justice, and I wrote a PhD dissertation on Blockchain technology to analyze new sets of power dynamics and algorithmic discrimination in digitally-mediated contexts.
At the end of 2018, I became the promoter of the Italian campaign #intimitàviolata, which asked for the introduction of a law against image-based sexual abuse. The campaign took to the approval of the law n.S. 1200 contained in the ddl. 'Codice Rosso' on 17/07/19 that today criminalizes the non-consensual sharing of intimate images (NCII) in Italy.
My political engagement goes together with academic research. In our latest article,  Lucia Bainotti and I analyze the problem of NCII in male-populated digital environments, such as Telegram groups.

ACADEMIC2

RESEARCH

RESEARCH

My work focuses on the intersection between technical and social aspects of technology, especially in the context of algorithmic imaginaries and the reproduction of discriminations through the use of digital tools.
During my PhD, I conducted qualitative research on the social applications of blockchain to understand how blockchain developers and experts conceive of sociality, social relations and social change. I investigated the political imaginaries that underlie the development of decentralized technologies, in order to understand how they contribute to the construction and reproduction of neoliberal discourses around the blockchains implementations. 
In parallel, I started researching gender-based online violence and how the use of digital platforms intertwines with pre-existing forms of social discrimination. In 2020, together with Lucia Bainotti, I published a digital ethnography in which we studied the role of Telegram in the amplification and automation of digital sexual violence and argued that platforms may reinforce gender performativity.
In addition, together with the collective Tracking Exposed, we investigated the role of Pornhub's algorithms in the promotion of heteronormative imaginaries and the reproduction of gender stereotypes through the socio-technical architecture of the platform.

My PhD research focused on the imbalances arising from the datafication of society, such as mass surveillance and data monopolies, that are calling for broader reflections on how to achieve 'data justice' (Dencik, 2016).
My case study, Blockchain technology, has been advocated by many as a technical solution to problems related to data ownership, privacy and concentrations of power on the Internet, and it is therefore starting to be applied to several dimensions of sociality, e.g. governance, art, education, music, etc.
The decentralized essence of Blockchain and its use of encryption represent among some 'crypto-enthusiasts' a technological revolution and the final solution to the centralization of power (Tapscott and Tapscott, 2016). However, some scholars have also pointed to the anarcho-libertarian essence of Blockchain (Golumbia, 2016; Gerard, 2017), which in its most extreme form believes that governments should exist only to ensure dominant private power over economy and citizens. In this sense, Blockchain might as well represent the latest innovation advocated to restructure power relation that might end up re-centralizing power dynamics and reproducing bias in digitally-mediated contexts.
My research looked at the societal applications of Blockchain and research on the imaginaries that underlie its development, trying to understand what biases may be encoded into blockchain technology, who are the actors that might ultimately benefit from the arrival of this new technology, and which are the political and economic interpretations that drive the implementations of technopolitics. To do so, I relied on a digital ethnography that unpacks different political approaches rooted in the crypto-culture of the broader hacker community.

AREA OF SPECIALIZATION

Online gender-based violence, blockchain, data justice, digital rights, algorithmic culture, crypto-culture, digital methods

Digital rights, data justice, social movements, digital activism, algorithmic culture, hacker culture, digital methods, gender theory, qualitative research.

PUBLICATIONS

PUBLICATIONS

Media Digitali e Violenza di Genere (Silvia Semenzin, Lucia Bainotti) In: "Media Digitali, Genere e Sessualità" | A cura di Manolo Farci e Cosimo Marco Scarcelli | Mondadori Università | 2022 

“Swipe up to smash the patriarchy”: Instagram feminist activism and the necessity of branding the self (Silvia Semenzin) | AG About Gender, 2022 | LINK

Blockchain-based application at a governmental level: Disruption or illusion? The case of Estonia (Silvia Semenzin, David Rozas, Samer Hassan) | Policy and Society, 2022 | LINK

The Platformization of Gender and Sexual Identities: An Algorithmic Analysis of Pornhub (Ilir Rama, Lucia Bainotti, Alessandro Gandini, Giulia Giorgi, Silvia Semenzin, Claudio Agosti, Giulia Corona, Salvatore Romano) | Porn Studies, 2022 | LINK

Automating trust with the blockchain? A critical investigation of ‘blockchain 2.0’ cultures (Silvia Semenzin, Alessandro Gandini) | Global Perspectives, 2021 | LINK

Donne Tutte Puttane. Revenge Porn e Maschilità Egemone (Silvia Semenzin, Lucia Bainotti) | Durango Edizioni, 2021 |
LINK

The use of Telegram for the non-consensual dissemination of intimate images and the construction of masculinities (Silvia Semenzin, Lucia Bainotti)
| Social Media + Society, 2020 | LINK

Blockchain and data justice: the political culture of technology (Silvia Semenzin) | PhD Dissertation, 2021 | University of Milan. LINK

The use of Telegram for the non-consensual dissemination of intimate images and the construction of masculinities (with Lucia Bainotti) | (Forthcoming) | LINK

Internet Archive and Hacker Ethics (blogpost for DATACTIVE, University of Amsterdam) | 2018 | LINK

Hacktivismo y ética hacker: el caso del Cryptoparty | 2016 | LINK

La comunicación politica en tiempos de crisis | 2015 | LINK

The use of Telegram for the non-consensual dissemination of intimate images and the construction of masculinities (with Lucia Bainotti) | (Forthcoming) | LINK

Internet Archive and Hacker Ethics (blogpost for DATACTIVE, University of Amsterdam) | 2018 | LINK

Hacktivismo y ética hacker: el caso del Cryptoparty | 2016 | LINK

La comunicación politica en tiempos de crisis | 2015 | LINK

Automating trust with the blockchain? A critical investigation of ‘blockchain 2.0’ cultures (Silvia Semenzin, Alessandro Gandini) | Global Perspectives, 2021 | LINK

Donne Tutte Puttane. Revenge Porn e Maschilità Egemone (Silvia Semenzin, Lucia Bainotti) | Durango Edizioni, 2021 | LINK

The use of Telegram for the non-consensual dissemination of intimate images and the construction of masculinities (Silvia Semenzin, Lucia Bainotti) | Social Media + Society, 2020 | LINK

Internet Archive and Hacker Ethics (blogpost for DATACTIVE, University of Amsterdam) | 2018 | LINK

La comunicación politica en tiempos de crisis | 2015 | LINK

ACADEMIC CURRICULUM VITAE

ACADEMIC CURRICULUM VITAE

CURRENT POSITION
🇪🇸 Post-doctoral researcher at University Complutense of Madrid (Faculty of Computer Science) | P2P MODELS

FORMER
🇳🇱 Lecturer at the University of Amsterdam (New Media and Digital Cultures) | 2020-2022

DEGREES

🇮🇹 PhD | Sociology and Methodology of Social Research | University of Milan | 2017-2021

🇪🇸 Master Degree
| Comunicación Social | Universidad Complutense de Madrid | 2014 - 2016

🇮🇹 Bachelor Degree | Scienze Politiche, Relazioni Internazionali e Diritti Umani | Università di Padova | 2010 - 2013

Master Degree | Comunicación Social" | Universidad Complutense de Madrid | 2014 - 2016

Bachelor Degree | Scienze Politiche, Relazioni Internazionali e Diritti Umani | Università di Padova | 2010 - 2013

Master Degree | Comunicación Social" | Universidad Complutense de Madrid | 2014 - 2016

Bachelor Degree | Scienze Politiche, Relazioni Internazionali e Diritti Umani | Università di Padova | 2010 - 2013

Master Degree | Comunicación Social | Universidad Complutense de Madrid | 2014 - 2016

Bachelor Degree | Scienze Politiche, Relazioni Internazionali e Diritti Umani | Università di Padova | 2010 - 2013

PhD VISITING UNIVERSITIES

🇪🇸 Universidad de Zaragoza | Zaragoza | Sociology | 2020

🇪🇪 TalTech
| Tallinn University of Technology | Ragnar Nurkse Department of Innovation and Governance | 2019

🇬🇧 King’s College | London | Digital Humanities | 2018

TalTech | Tallinn University of Technology | Ragnar Nurkse Department of Innovation and Governance | 2019

King’s College | London | Digital Humanities | 2018

SUMMER SCHOOLS

🇳🇱 University of Amsterdam | Digital Methods | Trolls, bots and dictators - On the current state of social media research | 2019

🇳🇱 University of Amsterdam | Digital Methods | Retraining the machine: Addressing algorithmic bias | 2018

🇺🇸 Harvard University | Sociological and Political Research, offered by CIS, at RCC Harvard University | 2017

🇫🇷 Université Paris-Est Créteil | International Media, Political Action and Communication Technologies | (2016)

RESEARCH PROJECTS COLLABORATIONS

Tracking Exposed https://tracking.exposed/

Deplatforming project, University of Amsterdam | 2020 | 
LINK to Richard Rogers' article

DATACTIVE, University of Amsterdam | 2018 | LINK to blogpost 

University of Amsterdam | Digital Methods | Trolls, bots and dictators - On the current state of social media research | 2019

University of Amsterdam | Digital Methods | Retraining the machine: Addressing algorithmic bias | 2018

Harvard University | Sociological and Political Research, offered by CIS, at RCC Harvard University | 2017

Université Paris-Est Créteil | International Media, Political Action and Communication Technologies | (2016)

SEMINARS AND CONFERENCES 

CONFERENCES

ACADEMIC SEMINARS

🇮🇹 Università di Palermo |Palermo | Generi, Sessualità e Regolazione Sociale | Invited by Cirus Rinaldi | 2021

🇮🇹 Università degli Studi di Padova | Padova | Digital Culture & Society | Invited by Cosimo Marco Scarcelli | 2021

🇮🇹 Università di Roma Tre | Roma | Master Studi e Politiche di Genere | Invited by Francesca Lopez | 2021

🇮🇹 Università degli Studi di Milano | Milano | Book presentation "Donne Tutte Puttane" | Invited by Cinzia Meraviglia | 2021

🇮🇹 Università degli Studi di Pavia | Pavia | Methodology of social research on Telegram | Invited by Alessandro Caliandro | 2020/21

🇮🇹 Università Federico II | Napoli | Methodology of social research on Telegram | Invited by Cristiano Felaco | 2021

🇪🇸 Univerdad de Zaragoza | Zaragoza | Porno vengativo: violencia, sexualidad y tecnología | Invited by Santiago Boira | 2019

🇮🇹 Università Federico II | Napoli | Revenge porn: violenza, sessualità e tecnologia | Invited by Adam Arvidsson | 2019

🇮🇹 Università degli Studi di Milano | Milano | Revenge porn: violenza, sessualità e tecnologia | Invited by Annalisa Murgia | 2019

🇮🇹 Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore | Milano | Does privacy still exist? | Invited by Ivana Pais | 2019 

PARTICIPATION IN CONFERENCES

🇪🇸 Global Forum on Democratizing Work | Governing the algorithms | 2021

🇸🇪 TOKEN Policy Observatory | Future scenarios for blockchain technology | P2P Models | 2021

🇮🇹 Scuola Democratica Conference | Reiventing Education | Virgin & Martyr | 2021

🇳🇱 Tech for Society | Rights to the Blockchain Cities | Values in the blockchain city | 2021

🇬🇧 Goldsmiths University | Figurations Conference | Persons In/Out of Data | 2019

🇮🇹 University of Milan| COMPOL Conference| Political Communication in the digital media ecosystem | Secretary | 2019

🇩🇪 University of Bremen | Data Power | Global In/securities | 2019 

🇮🇹 Università degli Studi di Urbino | AOIR Symposia | Below the Radar | 2019

🇮🇹 Università Federico II | Digital Hackathon | 2019

🇮🇹 Università degli Studi di Milano | Centro Genders | La violenza di genere dentro e fuori i luoghi di lavoro | 2019   

🇮🇹 Università Federico II | Post start-up cultures | 2018

🇬🇧 University of Leicester | New Directions in Media and Sociology Research Conference | 2018

🇬🇧 University of Cardiff | Data justice conference | 2018 

🇮🇹 University of Milan | Centro Genders | “La rete che umilia” | Main organizer | 2018 

🇪🇸 University of Gijón | FES: XII Congreso Espanol de Sociologia | 2016 

🇪🇸 UNED MadridIII Jornadas de Ciberpolitica | 2016 

ACADEMIC SEMINARS

Univerdad de Zaragoza | Zaragoza | Porno vengativo: violencia, sexualidad y tecnología | Invited by Santiago Boira | 2019

Università Federico II | Napoli | Revenge porn: violenza, sessualità e tecnologia | Invited by Adam Arvidsson | 2019

Università degli Studi di Milano | Milano | Revenge porn: violenza, sessualità e tecnologia | Invited by Annalisa Murgia | 2019

PARTICIPATION IN CONFERENCES

Goldsmiths University | Figurations Conference | Persons In/Out of Data | 2019

University of Milan| COMPOL Conference| Political Communication in the digital media ecosystem | Secretary | 2019

Global In/securities | University of Bremen | Data Power |  2019 

University of Urbino | AOIR Symposia Below the Radar |  2019

University Federico II | Digital Hackathon | 2019

Centro Genders | La violenza di genere dentro e fuori i luoghi di lavoro | 2019

Università Federico II Napoli | Post start-up cultures | 2018

University of Leicester | New Directions in Media and Sociology Research Conference | 2018

University of Cardiff | Data justice conference | 2018 

Centro Genders | Centro Genders | “La rete che umilia” | Main organizer | 2018  

University of Gijón | FES: XII Congreso Espanol de Sociologia | 2016 

UNED MadridIII Jornadas de Ciberpolitica | 2016 

RESEARCH PROJECTS

Deplatforming project, University of Amsterdam | 2020 | LINK to Richard Rogers' article

DATACTIVE, University of Amsterdam | 2018 | LINK to blogpost 

LECTURES

LECTURES & SEMINARS

Digital Sociology lectures

🇳🇱 University of Amsterdam | Lecturer in New Media & Digital Culture | Faculty of Humanities | from 2021

🇮🇹 
Università Statale di Milano | Milano |
Teaching Assistant | 2018/2019/2020 

🇮🇹 IULM | Milano | Ordine dei Giornalisti della Lombardia | 2019

🇬🇧 King’s College
| London | Teaching Assistant | 2018

IULM | Milano | Ordine dei Giornalisti della Lombardia | 2019 

Università Statale
| Milano | BA Comunicazione e Società + MA Comunicazione Pubblica e d'Impresa | 2019 

Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore | Milano | invited by Ivana Pais | 2019 

King’s College | London | invited by Alessandro Gandini | 2018

  

Classes of digital and gender education AT SCHOOL

FOR CLASSES AT MIDDLE & HIGH SCHOOLS: email me using the form or visit https://virginandmarty.com