Professor Linnet Taylor has been appointed as Chair in Global Digital Politics at the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) by the Executive Board of Erasmus University. She will start this new role in September 2026.
Linnet Taylor, currently professor in International Data Governance at Tilburg University, is the recipient of a €2 million ERC Consolidator Grant for her research project PublicLab: Improving governance of digital experiments.
At ISS she will focus on this project together with a team consisting of a PhD researcher and postdocs, to be recruited globally.
Previously Professor Taylor led the Global Data Justice project, seeking to understand and integrate different perspectives worldwide on what constitutes just treatment through data technologies. She holds a DPhil in development studies from IDS and has broad experience in publishing, teaching and PhD supervision, while she also was involved in policy advice, for example as a member of the Dutch State Commission against Discrimination and Racism and as a member of the UN’s Working Group on Data Governance for Development.
The field of international digital politics is a very relevant area for ISS as the topic is critical for research at a time when ownership and responsibility over data is globally contested and the powers of big tech are often beyond government control. This immediately links to questions about international political economy and social protection, especially in the Global South with often weaker legal protection.
- Professor