Stefania Milan is Professor of Critical Data Studies at the University of Amsterdam, working at the intersection of political participation, technology, and governance with emphasis on infrastructure and agency. She is affiliated with the Florence School of Transnational Governance at the European University Institute and the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. Her research focuses on critical data studies, data activism, and the politics of digital infrastructure. Milan examines how datafication transforms political participation and civil society engagement, exploring concepts like data activism , cloud protesting , and digital civil disobedience . Her work bridges Science and Technology Studies with Social Movement Studies to understand the evolving relationship between citizens, data, and power. Analysis of Milan's publications reveals consistent engagement with how datafication reshapes political agency, particularly through grassroots data practices. Her research spans theoretical frameworks for understanding data activism, empirical studies of digital protest, and critical examinations of internet architecture and human rights. Key trends include the emergence of alternative epistemologies around data, the politics of visibility in digital spaces, and the tension between data as stakes versus data as repertoires in political struggle. ERC Starting Grant (StG-2014_639379 DATACTIVE) for the DATACTIVE research project Milan leads the DATACTIVE research project and collective, which explores the politics of big data broadly defined, examining massive data collection, privacy, surveillance, social movements, internet activism, and internet infrastructure governance. She has also contributed to several significant research initiatives including the Big Data from the South Initiative, the IN-SIGHT.it project on citizenship and standard-setting in digital networks, and the e-LADDA project on Early Language Development in the Digital Age. The DATACTIVE project, based at the Department of Media Studies at the University of Amsterdam, investigates how civil society engages with datafication through both affirmative practices and resistance tactics. Milan's research collective examines how activists leverage technical properties of social media platforms and develop alternative data practices that challenge dominant data regimes.
