Dr Daniela Gandorfer
Daniela Gandorfer is a lecturer at University of Westminster Law School and Emerging Tech & Innovation Systems Lead at the Institute for Healthy Urban Living at Westminster University.
Before joining Westminster University, Daniela held postdoc positions at Princeton University and UC Santa Cruz, California. She received her PhD from Princeton University. In addition, she studied and attended programs at UC Berkeley, Utrecht University, Kent Law School, University of Klagenfurt, University of Vienna, NYU, and The New School.
She is the recipient of the 2021 ASciNA Young Scientist Award, and has co-edited the Research Handbook in Law and Literature (Edward Elgar Publishing, with Peter Goodrich and Cecilia Gebruers) as well as the Theory & Event special issue "Matterphorical" (Johns Hopkins Press, with Zulaikha Ayub). Her book Matterphorics: On the Laws of Theory is forthcoming with Duke University Press. Daniela is also co-editor of the "Discourses of Law" book series (Routledge), editorial board member of the "Law and Literature Journal (Taylor & Francis), and deputy director of the Westminster Law and Theory Lab.
Daniela is the founder and director of the Logische Phantasie Lab, a non-profit organization dedicated to decentralized and ethical approaches towards normativity at the intersection of climate change, political reorganization, and digital technologies. Award winning initiatives directed and supervised by Daniela include "de.RtB - A Decentralized Right to Breathe" and "de.WRs - Decentralized Water Rights."
Her work has been recognized with multiple awards, including the World Omisiri Award, the ASciNA Young Scientist Award, and three top honors at the Vienna Blockchain Awards (Overall Winner, Best Smart Technology, and Best Sustainable Technology), alongside the Vienna Content Award. Her initiatives have been funded by universities, industry partners, and governmental bodies.
In addition to teaching at various institutions, Daniela has a record of interdisciplinary and international projects and collaborations, chief among them the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, Yale University, UC Berkeley, Harvard University, Columbia University, Cardozo Law School, Northeastern University, Sciences Po Paris, UC Santa Cruz, University of Amsterdam, Tilburg University, The Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the United States, the Austrian Embassy in NY and London, Slought Foundation, MCS Data Labs, DeCeuvel, and more than sixteen programs, departments, and centres at Princeton University.
As an educator, Daniela is committed to preparing a new generation of legal professionals for the emerging landscape of decentralized and post-institutional governance. Her teaching emphasizes ethical reasoning, systems thinking, and conceptual agility—equipping students to engage with novel legal and organizational forms beyond the bounds of state-centric regulation, and to shape professions that are only now beginning to take form.
She is currently completing an executive MSc in Finance at the London School of Economics and Political Science, focusing on financial architectures and value systems in decentralized and emergent economic environments.
Daniela's research focuses on emerging technologies—such as Web3, blockchain, AI, and immersive systems—and their role in reshaping governance and normativity. She explores how legal authority and power are moving beyond traditional institutions toward decentralized, private, hybrid, and community-based systems. While many developments in this space have emerged from libertarian or economically individualist traditions, Daniela investigates alternative models of governance and legal meaning that reimagine how value is generated and shared—through ethically grounded, ecologically responsive, economically generative, and socially inclusive approaches. Drawing on legal theory, science and technology studies, and political thought, she develops new conceptual and practical tools for navigating these transformations. Her work is particularly interested in experimental legal systems, community protocols, and hybrid configurations that combine public and private infrastructures—seeking to support more just, participatory, and adaptive futures, including through regenerative finance (ReFi) and community-driven legal innovation.
