Lutiana Valadares Fernandes Barbosa

Lutiana Valadares Fernandes Barbosa (LinkedIn) is an Adjunct Professor and Visiting Researcher at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, a Postdoctoral Researcher at the O’Neill Institute at Georgetown Law, and a Community Fellow with Georgetown University’s AI and Democracy Initiative. She is also a Federal Public Defender in Brazil.

Her research and teaching focus on international law, human rights, artificial intelligence, and the governance of emerging technologies, particularly their implications for democracy, gender equality, algorithmic discrimination, and state accountability. At Georgetown, her teaching portfolio includes AI, Power and Society; AI and Human Rights; AI and Gender; and Artificial Intelligence and Autonomous Weapons. She also teaches AI Ethics and Governance in executive education programs through the Latin America Leadership Program at Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business.

Her scholarship draws on her experience as a human rights practitioner, including her work defending vulnerable populations in Brazil and her engagement with international and regional human rights institutions. She previously served as a Visiting Professional at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights at the Organization of American States, and as a researcher to UNESCO on AI ethics and governance. She is a member of the IEEE P7007.1 Working Group on the Ontological Standard for Addressing Risks in Artificial Intelligence Systems for Ethically Aligned Robotics and Automated Systems, where she co-leads the Identification and Analysis Subgroup, contributing to the development of international standards for identifying and addressing AI-related risks. She is also a member of UNESCO’s Women4Ethical AI Network and participates in international initiatives advancing responsible AI governance.

Barbosa is the author of Autonomous Weapons Systems and the Responsibility of States (CRC Press, 2024) and has published in international academic journals and edited volumes on international law, human rights, and emerging technologies. Her work examines how international legal frameworks can address the risks posed by artificial intelligence while protecting human rights and democratic institutions.

She previously served as an Adjunct Professor of Law at American University Washington College of Law (WCL) and as an Invited Professor of Law at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), Brazil. She holds a Ph.D. in International Law from UFMG, where her doctoral dissertation received the university’s award for best dissertation in 2023, and an LL.M. from Columbia Law School.