Get to know this year’s brilliant Student Fellows: Alexandra Yao and Elodie Vaudandaine!
Alexandra Yao (she/her) is a PhD Candidate at the University of British Columbia Department of Political Science, studying how democratic governments use facial recognition surveillance. She researches tech policy and AI governance in the EU, and is interested in the role of technology companies in international relations.
Her PhD dissertation examines how democratic governments are using facial recognition surveillance in Europe. Facial recognition surveillance (FRS) is strongly associated with authoritarian regimes. In fact, FRS is now used by all regime types, but while autocracies use FRS ubiquitously, democracies vary quite extensively in their use of facial recognition. Alexandra’s project examines what explains why and the degree to which some democracies use FRS. She conducts EU-wide research (plus the UK), as well as deep dives into four case studies to study state FRS in detail: Estonia, Sweden, Germany, and France.
Elodie Vaudandaine (she/her) is a student in the UBC-Sciences Po Dual Degree program majoring in Political Humanities and Philosophy. She is also a visual artist interested in exploring the relationships between political/phenomenological theory and the creation of images in art and film.
Elodie’s research explores the philosophical influences on the Belgian filmmaker Chantal Akerman.
