Lucia Nalbandian is a PhD student in the University of Toronto’s Department of Political Science and a Research Affiliate with the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Migration and Integration Program at Toronto Metropolitan University. Lucia’s research explores the use of emerging technologies in migration management. Lucia holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Public Law from the University of Toronto and a Master of Arts in Public Policy and Administration from Toronto Metropolitan University. By day, Lucia spends her time with the brilliant minds at Deloitte. Positioned in the Public Sector Transformation team, Lucia works with her colleagues to help government and public sector clients develop, modernize, and transform their strategies, policies, programs, and services.
Lucia’s research aims to extend the limited scholarly and public knowledge on advanced digital technology (ADT) use in migration governance and discover why states use ADTs to address certain migration issues rather than others. Lucia is eager to explore whether, when, and how ADTs may be leveraged to address migration challenges and where they may fail to address the root causes of migration challenges while creating new or exacerbating existing challenges, including violating human rights (including privacy), disguising racism, misrepresenting data, and short-circuiting decision-making. Lucia’s research explores the role of non-state actors in the development and use of technological solutions to manage migration and asylum, contributing to broader debates on the role and ethics of non-state actors in global governance and policy decision-making. Lucia aims to advance knowledge related to the use of technology to manage migration by providing empirical evidence to further explore related theoretical questions.