Yuan Stevens (she/they) is a legal and policy expert focused on sociotechnical security and human rights.
She works towards a world where powerful actors—and the systems they build—are held accountable to the public, especially when it comes to equity-seeking communities.
She brings years of international experience to her role as Academic Associate at the Centre of Genomics and Policy at McGill University, having examined the impacts of technology on marginalized populations in Canada, the US and Germany. Her work examines the human rights risks related to emerging technology, with a focus on artificial intelligence, privacy, data protection, cybersecurity and fundamental freedoms. She is a research affiliate at Data & Society Research Institute. She has worked at Amnesty International in London, UK, the Leadership Lab (now the Dais) at Toronto Metropolitan University, the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society as well as the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights and the Centre for Internet and Human Rights in Berlin.
Committed to publicly accessible legal and technical knowledge, Yuan has written for popular media outlets such as The Toronto Star and Ottawa Citizen and has been quoted in news stories by The CBC, The Globe & Mail, and The New York Times.
Yuan enjoys travel, plants, animals, reading (especially non-fiction), sci fi, comedy, playing mahjong and dancing with friends on the weekend.
You can find her on Twitter / X, ye olde LinkedIn and Google Scholar.