Dr. Fabio Cristiano

Biography

Fabio Cristiano is an Assistant Professor of Conflict Studies at Utrecht University. His research examines international politics, cybersecurity, and emerging technologies, with particular attention to how infrastructures and connectivity control shape conflict and its informational dimensions. His work broadly engages with socio-technical questions of violence, sovereignty, and territoriality as they are reconfigured by digital technologies. Over the years, a significant part of his research has focused on Palestine, conducting extensive fieldwork to explore how digital infrastructures operate as instruments of surveillance, warfare, and colonial control. After joining Utrecht University in 2022, he was a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer at Leiden University’s Institute of Security and Global Affairs and previously taught in the Department of Political Science at Lund University. He earned his PhD in Political Science for his dissertation on the politics of cyber conflict and surveillance technologies in Palestine. Cristiano is an Associate Fellow of the Hague Program for International Cybersecurity and is an active core group member of the Contesting Governance platform at Utrecht University. He established the Palestine Lab and serves as an academic advisor to the Palestinian NGO 7amleh. His recent publications include volumes on Artificial Intelligence in International Conflict and Cybersecurity, and he convenes courses for the MA in Conflict Studies and the Human Rights Minor in Conflict Studies. In addition, he is slated to be a Visiting Professor at Columbia University in New York for the Queen Wilhelmina Chair program from January to May 2026.

Research Interests

Experience