Faculty Directors
Dr. Derrick L. Cogburn, Co-Principal Investigator and co-founder of the Internet Governance Lab, is Professor in the International Communication and International Development Programs at the School of International Service and the Information Technology and Analytics Department in the Kogod School of Business at American University. Dr. Cogburn directs the Institute on Disability and Public Policy (IDPP) at American University and the Center for Research on Collaboratories and Technology Enhanced Learning Communities (COTELCO), an award-winning social science research center. His research and teaching includes: global information and communication technology and socio-economic development; institutional mechanisms for global governance of ICTs; transnational policy networks and epistemic communities; and socio-technical infrastructure for geographically distributed collaboration in knowledge work. Faculty Profile
Dr. Nanette S. Levinson is a Professor in the School of International Service, American University, one of two Directors of the Internet Governance Lab, and one of the co-founders. She is a past Chair of: International Communication Section, International Studies Association; Information Technology and Politics Section, American Political Science Association; and the Global Internet Governance Academic Network (GIGANET). Currently she co-chairs a HICSS mini-track she founded on Digital and Social Media: Culture, Identity, and Inclusion.
Recipient of awards including those for distinguished scholarship, outstanding teaching, program development, multicultural affairs and honors programming, she has designed co-curricular collaborative learning opportunities as well as research-based training programs for the private and public sectors. In 2011, the Ashoka Foundation presented her with an “Award for Outstanding Contributions to Social Entrepreneurship Education” and included her peer-reviewed syllabus in its list of the top ten syllabi in the field.
Her research and teaching focus on internet and cyber governance, knowledge transfer, and innovation in a range of settings including the cross-national; international organizations and capacity-building; and social entrepreneurship. Recent books, both co-edited with Laura Denardis, Derrick Cogburn, and Francesca Musiani, are: The Turn To Infrastructure In Internet Governance, Palgrave Macmillan (2016) and Researching Internet Governance Methods, Frameworks, Futures, MIT Press (2020).
Additional recent publications include: “Idea Entrepreneurs: The United Nations Open-Ended Working Group & Cybersecurity”. Telecommunications Policy 45, (6): July 2021 and “Crafting Science Diplomacy In Comparative Perspective: The Case of United States Internet Governance” in Internet Diplomacy: Shaping the Global Politics of Cyberspace, ed. by M. Marzouki and A. Calderado, Rowman & Littlefield, 2022. She received her bachelor’s, masters and doctoral degrees from Harvard University.