Biography
Ronald Sáenz is a political scientist, researcher, and PhD candidate in the Society, Technology, and Culture (STC) programme at the Open University of Catalonia (UOC), Barcelona. He holds a master's in Latin American Studies with a specialisation in Comparative Politics from the University of Salamanca, Spain. His main research interests intersect with the comparative politics of Latin America, platform studies, and science, technology, and society studies (STS).
In Barcelona, he is part of the Communication Networks and Social Change (CNSC) group of the Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3), researching the politics of ride-hailing platform regulation in Latin America. Previously, he was a lecturer at the Political Science Department of the University of Costa Rica (UCR). At the UCR, he also led research projects at the Institute of Social Research (IIS), where he began exploring the intersection between politics, technology, and digital platforms.
As a Visiting Fellow at the STG, he will join the work of the Ibero-American Network for Democracy and Artificial Intelligence (REDemocracIA), focusing on the comparative issues around digital platforms and artificial intelligence in Latin America but also contributing to mapping the challenges of governance posed by emerging technologies in the Global South.