معرفی
Professor Catherine Easton serves as Professor in Information Technology and Intellectual Property Law at Lancaster University's School of Law, with additional affiliations at Security Lancaster and the Centre for Law and Society. Her work bridges legal scholarship with practical technology implementation, focusing on digital inclusion and governance frameworks.
Her research centers on internet governance, domain name regulation, intellectual property law, and accessibility for disabled users. She examines how legal frameworks interact with human-computer interaction systems, particularly in crisis response scenarios and educational technology. Her scholarship consistently addresses the tension between regulatory compliance and genuine digital inclusion, with special attention to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Her recent publications reveal growing emphasis on autonomous systems regulation, particularly regarding disability access in driverless vehicles, and ethical frameworks for cloud-based disaster response. The scholarly trajectory shows evolution from foundational website accessibility analysis toward complex systems governance in emerging technologies.
- Higher Education Academy International Scholarship recipient
- MMU Promising Researcher Fellow (2011)
- Co-chair of UN Internet Governance Forum's Internet Rights and Principles Dynamic Coalition
- Treasurer of British and Irish Law, Education and Technology Association
- Guest editor for Web Journal of Current Legal Issues Disability Special Edition
Professor Easton actively develops legal education technologies, having created interactive teaching resources for major textbooks and pioneered clicker technology applications in law classrooms. She leads initiatives like the National Law Student Forum and has presented extensively on MOOCs and legal pedagogy. Her Security Lancaster affiliation connects her work to broader research on information transparency and crisis response ethics, where she examines big data's implications for inclusion and human rights.
