Biography

Antonina completed her undergraduate degree at NYU in Economics and Italian Cinema, with honors thesis, “Social and Economic Aspects of Italian Neo-Realism: a Comparison Between Fellini’s La Dolce Vita and Principles of Erich Fromm’s Humanistic Philosophy.”

Before moving to Bloomington from New York city to attend Maurer School of Law, she worked as a trusts and estates legal assistant in a boutique law firm, and later as an electronic discovery paralegal for a large international law firm. Before joining the Telecommunications Department of Media School to continue her graduate studies, Antonina completed a dual degree in law and in area studies at Robert F. Byrnes Russian East European Institute, both at Indiana University in Bloomington.

The combination of her experiences evolved into her present study focus: adoption of facial recognition technologies in Russia and the US. Some of the questions she explores are: what legal and social processes affect biometric data collection in Russia and the US? how does privacy-related law-making influence biometric data collection in these countries?

Recent Projects

Associate in Open Research Laboratory on Russia, Eastern Europe and Eurasia at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2021

A longitudinal study, “A Critical Approach to Investigating Communication Practices of Marginalized Populations Using Longitudinal Field Experiments” with Prof. Amy Gonzales and four other Media School graduate students, 2018

US-Russia Social Expertise Exchange Fellowship in Moscow, Russia, administered by ACLU, American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative (ABA RoLI), and Eurasia Foundation,  2014

Moscow-based human rights NGO, “Public Verdict,” during SEE Fellowship, category, “Police oversight in Moscow and St. Petersburg and the roles of rule of law and of civil society,” 2014