Valentina Golunova is a PhD candidate within the Transformative Effects of Globalisation in Law (TEGL) research group and part of the Department of International and European Law. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Law (Saint Petersburg State University, 2018) and LLM (cum laude) in International and European Law (Tilburg University, 2019).

Valentina's research interests lie at the intersection of EU fundamental rights and digitalisation. In her PhD project provisionally entitled 'Better safe than sorry? Algorithmic content moderation and freedom of expression in the EU', she examines how the advent of automated tools for proactive detection of illegal content online transforms the EU intermediary liability framework and challenges protection of freedom of expression. Valentina presented her research in the promotional video by the Maastricht Centre for European Law (MCEL) appeared on the podcast series 'Let's Talk Human Rights'. She is also a member of the Globalisation & Law Network (GLaw-Net) and Maastricht European Private Law Institute (M-EPLI).

Prior to joining Maastricht University, Valentina worked at the human rights NGO Citizens' Watch (Saint Petersburg, Russia) and was a trainee at the Constitutional Court of Russia.