The Bonavero Institute welcomes Early Career Fellow Dr Federica Fedorczyk

Dr Federica Fedorczyk is an Early Career Research Fellow at the Institute for Ethics in AI at the University of Oxford and a Research Fellow at Reuben College. She is also an Affiliate at the Information Law Institute of NYU School of Law.

She works at the intersection of law, technology, and criminal justice. Her research addresses AI regulation and ethics, with particular emphasis on three areas: the use of AI systems in prison settings and their implications for surveillance and rehabilitation; the regulation of non-consensual sexual deepfakes and other forms of AI-driven gender-based abuse; and the governance of high-risk AI systems, with a critical focus on the risks of top-down misuse by governments and its effects on democracy and individual autonomy.

Prior to joining Oxford, she was a Postdoctoral Emile Noël Fellow at NYU School of Law and a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the European Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence on the Regulation of Robotics & AI of Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies. After a Law degree summa cum laude from the University of Roma Tre, she obtained a PhD in Criminal Law summa cum laude at Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies in July 2024, with a dissertation exploring how the use of AI is transforming the criminal justice system.

At the Bonavero Institute, she will carry out her research project “Smart Prisons: Reassessing the Fundamental Principles of Imprisonment in the Age of AI”. This project examines the growing use of AI and digital technologies in prisons and migration detention facilities, and their implications for the human rights of detained persons. It explores how algorithmic surveillance, biometric monitoring, behavioural prediction, data-driven decision-making, and virtual reality might reshape detention practices and intensify the vulnerability of individuals whose liberty is already restricted. It also considers how AI systems might be used to support rehabilitation and assesses the potential benefits and risks for prisoners.

More broadly, her research focuses on: 

• AI regulation and ethics: the regulation of high-risk AI systems and their potential misuse by government and law enforcement authorities.
• AI and the criminal justice system: the use of AI systems in policing, criminal trials, sentencing, and prisons.
• AI-driven gender-based crimes: non-consensual sexual deepfakes and other forms of AI-enabled gender-based abuse.

The Early Career Fellowship Programme encourages post-doctoral researchers or other early career researchers engaged in the broad field of human rights law who have a college or university early career position in Oxford, to undertake their research at the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights. Graduate students, whether at doctoral or master’s level, are not eligible for this programme, and we suggest you look at the University of Oxford’s website detailing the recognised student scheme.  

Early Career Fellows will have the opportunity to participate in many of the activities of the Institute and are encouraged to contribute to the collegial research environment. Early Career Fellows will be entitled to make use of the University’s research facilities and libraries, and to attend seminars and lectures plus other academic gatherings open to the university community.