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 current research interests lie at the intersection of EU fundamental rights and digital transformations. In her PhD project provisionally entitled 'Better safe than sorry? Reconciling monitoring obligations of online service providers with freedom of expression in the era of automated content moderation', she examines how the rise of artificial intelligence transforms the EU intermediary liability framework and challenges freedom of expression and information online. Valentina seeks to show how the growing push for the deployment of algorithms by online platforms could impair effective protection of fundamental rights enjoyed by Internet users.

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.