Victoria Kozlova

Victoria has an academic background in sociolinguistics, communications, and gender studies, with a focus on how language shapes narratives and ideologies. She co-founded a research and development agency that twice received EU funding for blockchain projects and worked as a designer in the Web3 industry, where she observed a recurring gap between ambitious promises and real user needs. Many projects, she noted, claim to “bank the unbanked” or “educate the uneducated,” yet fail to meaningfully engage with the communities they target. More recently, she has turned her attention to regenerative and decolonial narratives, questioning whether they genuinely foster equitable futures or simply repackage extractive practices under new slogans. Her research seeks to critically examine these dynamics and explore what can be learned from both failures and successes in order to design digital systems that truly serve communities.

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For the DREAM+PLAN Program, Victoria is most excited about joining an international community of researchers and practitioners who take both critical and creative approaches to the future of technology.