I am a doctoral researcher at the University of Sheffield, United Kingdom, affiliated with the School of Sociological Studies, Politics and International Relations and the Centre for Machine Intelligence, where I examine how artificial intelligence infrastructures are reshaping democracy, power, and accountability. My research sits at the intersection of AI governance, democratic theory, and human rights. I hold an MSc in Gender Studies from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and degrees in Sociology and Journalism, which ground my interdisciplinary approach to technology and society.

My trajectory has been guided by a central question: Who is allowed to participate in the future when technologies become the architecture of social life? This question began to take shape in 2011, during my work as a researcher with Brazil’s National Research Council (CNPq), where I conducted fieldwork in rural, riverine, and quilombola remote communities in Brazil. There, I came to understand that digital inequalities are shaped by layered forms of structural exclusion: literacy, mobility, and access to rights, showing that understanding technology requires understanding the social conditions that shape participation.

Over time, this perspective expanded from questions of access and inclusion to the broader regimes of power that structure digital infrastructures. I began to examine how large technology platforms operate as political actors, shaping not only technical systems but the very conditions of democratic life. In recent work, such as “Resisting Big Tech: Countergovernance and the Future of AI Democracy”, I argue that current AI governance regimes tend to privilege corporate and state interests, often at the expense of collective rights and marginalised groups.

Building on this trajectory, I develop conceptual contributions that bring together democratic theory, feminist critique, and AI governance. In dialogue with Blair Attard-Frost’s concept of AI countergovernance, I analyse how civil society, workers, and communities contest extractive data practices and reconfigure mechanisms of accountability. This approach is informed by my work on gender and technology, including the co-founding of MariaLab, an organisation oriented around principles such as feminist infrastructures, digital security for women, LGBTQIA+ people, human rights defenders, and the use of free software technologies. In recent work, such as my article in Tech Policy Press on  gendered disinformation, I develop the idea that platforms operate as sociotechnical infrastructures, shaped by design choices and business models, that articulate misogyny, political power, and technology. From this perspective, I seek to move beyond purely technical solutions and instead focus on analysing the structures of power that underpin digital systems.

Alongside my academic work, I have built a trajectory at the intersection of research, policy, and practice. I founded Newa, where I led the development of ethical governance and Equity, Diversity and Inclusion strategies for organisations across Latin America. I have also collaborated with institutions such as UNESCO, GIZ, and the Brazilian Internet Steering Committee, working across research, participation, and policy development.

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