As a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Anthropology at Rice University, I work at the intersection of political anthropology, socio-legal studies, and science, technology, and society (STS) studies. My dissertation research project examines the impact of emerging technologies on established areas of expertise and contemporary modes of governance. Specifically, I investigate the development and use of legal technologies in China and France to understand how information technologies, particularly artificial intelligence (AI), may transform the application of law, legal professionals’ work, and laypeople’s interactions with the legal system.

I became interested in socio-legal studies while earning a bachelor’s degree in ethnology and a master’s degree in law from the University of Warsaw. Before starting my doctoral studies, I worked as a lawyer in the intellectual property practice of a Warsaw-based law firm and then at the Polish Office of Competition and Consumer Protection, where I conducted antitrust proceedings related to IT, pharmaceutical, and advertising industries. Working in both private practice and public administration allowed me to observe the interactions between law, bureaucracy, economy, and technology from different angles. These experiences inspired me to continue exploring various technologies’ impact on the judicial system and state bureaucracy from a broader socio-cultural perspective through doctoral studies in anthropology.

At Rice, I have been a co-coordinator of Mutant Anthropologies (2021-2022), a mentor to undergraduate students majoring in anthropology (2021-2022), and a writing coach for freshmen enrolled in a first-year intensive writing seminar (2022).