Keira Giacometti (A&S '26) was the only undergraduate presenting at the 2nd Annual Women & Girls' Online Safety Conference (WGOS'26) in Milton Keynes, England earlier this month. Surrounded by senior researchers, policymakers, and advocates from around the world, it was the kind of room that could rattle a student presenting for the first time. But for Giacometti, it helped that she wasn’t the only one from Pitt in the room—or the only one with research to share.
Giacometti traveled as part of a University of Pittsburgh delegation led by Müge Kökten Finkel, associate professor in the School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA) and director of the Ford Institute for Human Security, and joined by Keila Grinberg of Pitt's Center for Latin American Studies (CLAS), SPIA PhD student Cindy Pan, and another of Finkel's former students, Arden Menzel (A&S '26). The conference was hosted by the Centre for Protecting Women Online (CPWO) at The Open University.
For Pan, the trip offered something she doesn't often find in her day-to-day research.
"Being in a space with people who share both the analytical seriousness and moral urgency of this work was truly inspiring and profoundly impactful," she said.
At the conference, Pan, Finkel, and Grinberg presented new research from the Krista Reitz Network, an international collaborative the Ford Institute launched this spring in partnership with CLAS, including preliminary findings from the network's research in Brazil on online violence against women in politics (OVAW-P). 
"Sharing this research at an international conference created opportunities to exchange ideas, bring the work we are developing at the University of Pittsburgh into conversation with emerging research and policy discussions on a global scale, and build a stronger network of research collaborators and community partners," Pan said.
One theme kept surfacing across sessions, she said: the need to move from reacting to online harms toward preventing them, especially as artificial intelligence reshapes the landscape faster than policy can respond. AI, Pan said, "occupies a precarious and paradoxical position," capable of enabling new harms like non-consensual deepfakes, but also holding real potential for moderation and accountability. The conversations are already shaping her dissertation and her thinking on how digital spaces can become more responsive to the experiences of women and girls facing online violence.
Giacometti, an undergraduate in Pitt's Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences completing a political science major with minors in creative writing and classical civilizations, isn't a SPIA student, but she got to Milton Keynes the same way Pan's work did: through Finkel. Giacometti took Finkel's Transatlantic Policy Analysis course last spring and was assigned to write a policy brief connected to the semester's coursework. She focused on tech in schools, a topic that led her to the AI deepfake non-consensual intimate imagery crisis.
When Finkel learned about the brief, she pointed Giacometti toward a guest speaker visiting the class that February: Olga Jurasz, director of CPWO, who mentioned the conference her center was organizing in Milton Keynes. Finkel encouraged Giacometti to submit her work. She was accepted as a presenter in June, and with support from the Ford Institute and Pitt's European Studies Center, she spent two days at The Open University sitting in on sessions about communicating research to policymakers, the measurable impacts of digital violence, and how generative AI actually functions.
"Presenting at this conference has been amongst the most impactful experiences of my undergraduate career," Giacometti said. "I met incredible scholars in the field of online violence against women and gained insight I would have never gotten within the classroom. Without Dr. Finkel's guidance, I would have been scared out of my mind. But everyone was so kind and knowledgeable."
Giacometti said the experience reflects something bigger than one conference.
"I think this experience speaks to the massive impact the Ford Institute for Human Security — and taking a chance that may feel nerve-wracking at first — can have on a student's career," she said. “I highly recommend saying yes to any opportunity that is handed to you while at Pitt. Take research opportunities, share your thoughts, comments, and concerns with your professors, and know that what you learn now is applicable in more fields than just the one you're studying."
Learn more about the Ford Institute for Human Security, including the Krista Reitz Network and Online Violence Against Women in Politics working group, at fordinstitute.pitt.edu.