New postdoctoral fellow at CeBIL - Dr. Hannah Louise Smith
Hannah is a socio-legal scholar interested in the regulation of new and emerging technologies, with particular interests in data protection, privacy, and more inclusive approaches to regulation in this area.
Prior to this postdoc, Hannah joined the University of Western Australia as a Research Fellow at the UWA Tech & Policy Lab. Through case studies, including food delivery drones and wearable technologies, her work contributed to a cross-disciplinary exploration of the implications of technological advances to develop responses that ensure technology serves the needs of citizens, rather than the other way around. During this fellowship, she worked with Western Australia’s Office for Digital Government, the Western Australian Police, and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to help guide laws and policies responding to drones, AI, and privacy.
During her DPhil, Hannah worked on a range of projects that considered the implications of technological innovations, including as a Research Fellow for the Unlocking the Potential of Artificial Intelligence for English Law project and as part of a project with the Alan Turing Institute considering barriers to data sharing in the context of modern slavery policy interventions. She also interned at Policy Lab, part of the Cabinet Office within the UK Government where she explored data-driven, human-centred, and design-oriented approaches to policy-making.
Hannah was a Stipendiary Lecturer at Magdalen College, University of Oxford, where she taught Constitutional Law and EU Law. She has experience teaching Administrative Law at undergraduate level, has delivered seminars for the BCL regulation course, and was actively involved in a range of Access and Outreach initiatives delivered by the Faculty of Law.
At Inter-CeBIL, Hannah will bring her expertise in the regulation of emerging technologies and apply it to the programme’s key interests of AI and quantum technologies, advanced medical computing, and sustainable innovation. Her interests concern innovative and inclusive ways of regulating technologies to ensure risks are minimised and benefits are equitably distributed. Her experience in quantitative and qualitative methods will provide an opportunity to broaden the understanding of the opportunities and risks presented by the technologies explored as part of Inter-CeBIL’s research agenda.