Gili Vidan is a Fellow at the Harvard STS Program and a PhD student at the Harvard History of Science Department. Her work is broadly concerned with questions of governance at the intersection of digital information technologies, law, and politics. Gili’s dissertation traces technical attempts to solve the problems of trust and transparency, especially through the development of electronic payment systems and public key cryptography in late 20th- and early 21st-century U.S.

Prior to starting her PhD at Harvard, Gili earned a MSc in Social Science of the Internet at Oxford University, where her research focused on cryptocurrencies, mobile technology, and digital geographies, and a BA in Social Studies with a secondary in Computer Science from Harvard College.

Gili’s engagement with the Harvard STS Program began 6 years ago as an undergraduate, when she wrote a thesis on cybersecurity and international relations under Sheila Jasanoff’s supervision.