Professor Ana Beduschi

Ana Beduschi is a Full Professor of Law with a Personal Chair at the University of Exeter, where she also serves as Co-Director of Research and Impact (Funding) at the Law School.

Her research and teaching sit at the intersection of law and technology, with a particular focus on artificial intelligence and its implications for data protection law, international human rights law, and privacy. Her current work investigates whether legal frameworks conceived long before AI can withstand the demands of systems that now act autonomously, and examines regulatory approaches to agentic AI, synthetic data, and extended reality. Her 2026 article “Data protection in the era of agentic artificial intelligence” (Computer Law & Security Review) considers whether the GDPR remains fit for purpose as AI agents pursue complex goals and coordinate multi-step actions with limited human input.

Ana’s forthcoming books include the Handbook on Migration and Artificial Intelligence (Edward Elgar 2026) and A Research Agenda for Human Rights Law and AI (Edward Elgar 2027), both as editor, and Law and Artificial Intelligence (Routledge 2027), a textbook co-authored with Matthew Channon and Adam Nicholls. She is also a co-editor of Data Protection in Humanitarian Action: Responding to Crises in a Data-Driven World (Routledge 2025, with Massimo Marelli and Aaron Martin). She has carried out research on AI in healthcare and has published widely on digital identity and the use of AI in international migration management. Her work has been published in leading interdisciplinary journals, including Big Data & Society, Migration Studies, Data & Policy, and the International Review of the Red Cross.

She has collaborated with the International Organization for Migration on the policy implications of AI, co-authoring the chapter on artificial intelligence, migration and mobility in the World Migration Report 2022. Her research has been cited in policy documents by bodies including the United Nations Human Rights Council, the OECD and the European Parliament. Ana serves on the advisory boards of the Ethical Data Initiative (University of Exeter and Technical University of Munich), AI@Exeter, and the Accelerating Data Science and Artificial Intelligence Project at the University of Exeter. She has held Visiting Research Fellowships at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg (2017) and the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights (University of Geneva) (2019 and 2021-2022).

Ana holds a PhD in Law (2011) from the University of Montpellier 1, France, where she earned an LLB in Law (2003), an LLM in International and European Law (Maîtrise in 2004), and an LLM in European Human Rights Law (Master 2 in 2005). She holds a further LLB in Law from the UNESP (University of the State of São Paulo, Brazil, 2000) and was admitted to the Bar as an Attorney-at-Law in São Paulo, Brazil, in 2001. Her previous academic positions at the University of Exeter Law School include those of Lecturer (2012-2016), Senior Lecturer (2016-2019), and Associate Professor (2019-2022).

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Research supervision:

Current PhD students:

• Sophia Simelitidou, 'Privacy vs Protection: The right to private and family life in the EU Immigration and Asylum System and the lived experiences of asylum seekers in Greece' (with Prof Nick Gill, University of Exeter - Geography Department)
• Georgia Hill, 'How should the law distinguish between personal and non-personal data for the purposes of accessing connected and automated vehicle data?' (with Dr Matthew Channon, University of Exeter - Law School)

Alumni:

• Dr Laura Scheinert Idodo, 'Supporting judges in asylum adjudication – the role of judicial training' (with Prof Nick Gill - University of Exeter, Geography Department and Dr Emma Tonkin - University of Bristol, Engineering Department)
• Dr Joshua Alexander Redmond, 'AI and Environment' (with Dr Ernesto Schwartz Marin - University of Exeter, Sociology Department and Dr Hugo Barbosa - University of Exeter, Computer Science Department)
• Dr Mehmet Metin Uzun, 'Governing Artificial Intelligence: Regulatory Public Policy Framework' (with Prof Oliver James, University of Exeter - Politics Department)