Jamal Shahin

Jamal Shahin serves as Associate Professor and Program Director at the Brussels School of Governance (Vrije Universiteit Brussel), Senior Lecturer at the University of Amsterdam, and Professorial Fellow at UNU-CRIS in Bruges. His academic career spans multiple prestigious institutions with a focus on European governance and digital policy.

Dr. Shahin earned his PhD in Politics from the University of Hull in 2005 with a dissertation titled "Virtual Governance? The relationship between the Internet and Governance in the European Union." His academic journey reflects a deep commitment to understanding the intersection of technology, governance, and European integration.

Shahin's research centers on digital sovereignty within the European Union context, examining how new forms of global social and political organization impact decision-making effectiveness and legitimacy. He investigates EU communication strategies in domestic and international arenas and explores interdisciplinary approaches to improve policy design. His work bridges theoretical governance frameworks with practical policy applications in the digital age, focusing particularly on internet governance, EU policy-making, and the evolving concept of sovereignty in digital spaces.

His scholarly output demonstrates a clear evolution toward contemporary digital governance challenges, with recent publications focusing on EU digital sovereignty, internet governance frameworks, and regional digital policy coordination. The research shows increasing emphasis on the tension between state sovereignty and the global nature of digital infrastructure, reflecting current geopolitical debates in technology policy.

As an academic supervisor, Shahin has mentored doctoral students including Penarrubia Manon (2017) and Clément Perarnaud (2021). His research is supported by multiple active projects including "Digital Sovereigns and the Non-Sovereign Internet" (2025-2027), "Negotiating State Sovereignty over the Internet" (2024-2027), and the "House of Sustainable Transitions" initiative (2024-2028).

Shahin leads the Digital Governance cluster at UNU-CRIS and chairs the Global Internet Governance Academic Network (GigaNet) from 2025-2027. His work connects academic research with practical policy development through regular participation in conferences, workshops, and public lectures on digital sovereignty and EU governance.