Theresa is a PhD candidate at IViR (Institute for Information Law, UvA), and part of the research team at the AI, Media, and Democracy Lab. Her research is primarily concerned with regulating the opinion power and political power of digital platforms. In order to do so, she employs a predominantly normative legal research approach to analyse the implications of increasing power concentrations in the digital media ecosystem for media pluralism and democracy. Her fields of research include European media law and policy, fundamental rights, especially media freedom and pluralism, and platform regulation.
Following graduation from her international law studies (University of Groningen and Ghent University), Theresa spent time working in the field of data protection law and with media freedom NGOs before returning to research. Theresa also spent three months as a visiting newsroom fellow at Polis think tank based at the Department of Media and Communication at the London School of Economics (LSE) during which time she conducted interviews with media organisations as part of her current PhD research.
Theresa believes that interdisciplinary research and collaboration with relevant stakeholders are critical in addressing the threats to media freedom and pluralism posed by the rise of powerful platforms and significant shifts in the media ecosystem caused by artificial intelligence and digital technologies. At the Lab, Theresa is particularly interested in and inspired by bringing various stakeholders together for discussions on regulatory and policy related aspects of AI and platforms in the media.
