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Vic Castro

Postdoc

Subjects
Digitalisation Internet International relations Security Ukraine

Primary research areas

Cy­ber­war­fare

How at­tack and de­fence in cy­ber­space are con­duc­ted (by states and non-state act­ors) in a con­text of on-the-ground kin­et­ic war.

Di­git­al sov­er­eignty

How states, com­pan­ies, and oth­er act­ors ne­go­ti­ate polit­ic­al autonomy, ter­rit­ori­al in­teg­rity, and in­sti­tu­tion­al val­ues through cy­ber­space.

Crit­ic­al se­cur­ity stud­ies

How in­ter­na­tion­al se­cur­ity plays out at an em­bod­ied hu­man level, in­clud­ing world­views, dis­course, prac­tice, af­fect, gender, and sexu­al­ity.

Pop­u­lar cul­ture in world polit­ics

How fic­tion­al and cul­tur­al arte­facts (in­clud­ing nov­els, tele­vi­sion series, video games, and songs) re­flect, con­test, and in­flu­ence in­ter­na­tion­al polit­ics.

Ukrain­i­an polit­ics

Do­mest­ic and in­ter­na­tion­al Ukrain­i­an polit­ic­al ques­tions, with a fo­cus on Volodymyr Zelenskyy's pres­id­ency (from 2019 on).

Sec­u­lar re­li­gion

How im­pli­cit re­li­gious nar­rat­ives in­form dis­courses on sov­er­eignty, tech­no­logy, (de)col­on­isa­tion, and polit­ics broadly.

I study how cy­ber­space trans­forms state and cor­por­ate power

As an International Relations (IR) scholar, I follow politics and power in all their forms as they remake the world. Through eclectic theories — from international security to science and technology studies (STS) to queer and postcolonial theory — I research how cyberspace reconfigures power and authority for sovereign states, tech corporations, and non-state actors. 

My present focus is on digital sovereignty in wartime Ukraine. Much has been said on Russian cyberwar and the involvement on Ukraine’s side of powerful tech companies like Microsoft, Starlink, or Palantir. And too often one forgets how Ukraine itself strives to build, through digital technology, its own place on a chaotic international stage.

I speak to Ukrainian tech policymakers and practitioners on the ground as they construct a unique form of digital sovereignty that reasserts wartime territorial integrity while safeguarding institutional values and decolonising the country from Russia and others. Cybersecurity plays a central role in this.

As a Ukraine specialist, I also closely follow Ukrainian domestic and international politics, notably Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his place in Ukrainian society and culture. One of my side projects analyses current politics and queerness in post-2022 Ukrainian fantasy literature.

I am fluent in French, English, Danish, and Ukrainian.

Recent research projects

De­co­lo­ni­al Cy­ber­war­fare

I am work­ing on my own pro­ject fun­ded in 2026 by the DFF-In­ter­na­tion­al Postdoc Grant. The pro­ject stud­ies how Ukraine con­structs its di­git­al sov­er­eignty with­in the Russo-Ukrain­i­an war and giv­en the in­volve­ment of power­ful for­eign tech com­pan­ies.