Video of the seminar “AI and Water Justice: Data Centres as Sites of Struggle”, featuring our colleague Nicolas Diaz Bejarano who is working with DiPLab and the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile on our common project SEED: Social and Environmental Effects of Data connectivity: Hybrid ecologies of transoceanic cables and data centers in Chile and France. Nicolás Diaz Bejarano is an architect (Universidad de los Andes, Colombia), researcher, lecturer and PhD candidate in Architecture, Design and Urban Studies at UC Chile. Currently, Nicolas is a doctoral researcher at the Millennium Nucleus: Future of Artificial Intelligence Research (FAIR), where he studies hyperscale data centers exploring how society intertwines with digital data matter in local territories. In 2023, Nicolas won the CCA “Architecture as Public concern” 2023 fellowship with Marina Otero Verzier and Serena Dambrosio for exploring environmental justice of data centers in Quilicura, Chile. In 2025, he was co-curator of the Chilean Pavilion – Reflective Intelligences – at the 19th Venice Architecture Biennale with Linda Schilling and Serena Dambrosio and a member of the ECOS-ANID collaboration project SEED: Social and Environmental Effects of Data connectivity: Hybrid ecologies of transoceanic cables and data centers in Chile and France.

We are delighted to share that Dr. Lucas Souza, former postdoctoral researcher and now research partner at DiPLab, has been appointed Visiting Professor at Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF) in Brazil! Lucas was an integral part of our team during his work on the Voices from Online Labour (VOLI) project, where he investigated worker experiences in the Global South. At UFF’s History Institute, Lucas is launching a major research initiative supported by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq). Running through 2029, “Precarization, Memory, and Resistance” examines the historical roots and contemporary manifestations of labor precarization in the platform economy. His research brings a new historical lens to platform labor studies, bridging social history and the sociology of work. By analyzing digital archives, public history, and industrial relations, Lucas traces how workers remember, organize, and resist precarious conditions in the digital economy. Lucas Souza<br is a Visiting Professor at Universidade Federal Fluminense. His research focuses on platform labour, ranging from food delivery to AI-related platform work. He was a postdoctoral researcher at ENSAE from 2024 to 2025. He earned his PhD in Social History. In 2024 at UFF, and he was a Guest Researcher at the Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies. His research focuses on the history of precarious work in Brazil, the platformisation of labour, and digital studies. Congratulations to Lucas on this well-deserved appointment. We are excited about the valuable insights his research will contribute to the study of platform labor and worker agency in Brazil and beyond. Moreover, his continued role as a research partner of the VOLI project at DiPLab underscores his ongoing commitment to advancing our common work.