Meet GVPT's New Faculty Member: Swati Srivastava

The Department of Government and Politics (GVPT) is excited to welcome Dr. Swati Srivastava to the University of Maryland for the 2026–27 academic year.

Srivastava joins Maryland as an Associate Professor with a joint appointment in GVPT and the Artificial Intelligence Interdisciplinary Institute at Maryland (AIM). She also directs the International Politics and Responsible Tech (iPART) Lab, which she founded in 2019 and has brought with her to UMD.

Srivastava's research examines private power in global governance, with her current work focusing on the global influence of Big Tech firms, the geopolitics of artificial intelligence and questions of responsibility and accountability in AI governance. Her research asks how technology companies increasingly shape global politics, how their power interacts with that of states, and how private tech power can be held accountable.

Through the iPART Lab, Srivastava and her research team study the global power of Big Tech and AI firms. Current projects include tracking regulatory activity involving major technology companies, compiling public-interest disclosures from online platforms and AI labs, and documenting sociopolitical harms associated with technology companies around the world.

Her recent research includes the 2026 article “Platform Rule: Facebook, Corporate Power, and Networked Publics,” published in the European Journal of International Relations. The article examines how Facebook exercises state-like rulemaking power over the networked publics that form and interact through its platform.

Srivastava is also the author of Hybrid Sovereignty in World Politics (Cambridge University Press, 2022), which examines how states and nonstate actors jointly produce sovereign power. The book was selected for the J. Ann Tickner Distinguished First Book Roundtable by the International Studies Association–Northeast in 2024. Her second book, Responsible AI and Structural Justice: Addressing Harm When Blame is Hard to Find, is forthcoming from Cambridge University Press in its Elements in AI Ethics and Society series.

Before joining Maryland, Srivastava was an Associate Professor of Political Science and University Faculty Scholar at Purdue University. She received her Ph.D. in Political Science from Northwestern University and has earned numerous awards for her research and teaching.

Please join us in welcoming Dr. Srivastava to GVPT and the University of Maryland!

Learn more about Swati Srivastava

Published on Thu, 08/27/2026 - 13:33