Dissertation Title: Pacific Islands regionalism and submarine fibreoptic cables
Doctoral Supervisor: Professor John Ferejohn
Biography: Lauren is a JSD student from Australia. She completed an LLM (Legal Theory) at NYU in 2021-22 as a Hauser Global Scholar. Lauren also completed a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in English Literature and a Juris Doctor at the University of Melbourne. Prior to coming to NYU, Lauren worked at Gilbert + Tobin in Melbourne, where she was admitted to practice as an Australian lawyer, and as an Associate to the Honourable Justice Jayne Jagot at the Federal Court of Australia in Sydney.
Research: Lauren’s research investigates contemporary Pacific Islands regionalism through an “infrastructural” analysis of several submarine fiberoptic cable projects. It asks: how are the aims, organization, and cohesion of the contemporary Pacific Islands restricted and supported? The project suggests that investigation of the technological, organizational, and social dimensions of regional fibreoptic cable projects provides important insights into this question. These infrastructures involve many of the diverse conditions currently shaping the Pacific Islands, including those typically explored in transnational law, such as cooperative conduct, imperial legacies, and claims to space, as well as unstudied effects, such as transforming technologies, corporate strategy, and local aspirations for interconnection. Description and analysis of these interactional conditions assists in understanding Oceanic regionalism in a manner more responsive to regional sovereignty.
Contact Information: lep7594@nyu.edu