Karla Alvarado Romero

Karla Alvarado is a doctoral researcher at the HCIAS and the Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences of Heidelberg University and a member of the HCIAS Doctoral Research Group “Communication and Society in Ibero-America”. She is a scholarship holder of the State Graduate Funding Program (Landesgraduiertenförderungsprogramm) of the State of Baden-Württemberg, an associate of the Heidelberg Center for Digital Humanities (HCDH), and a member of the Heidelberg Graduate School for the Humanities and Social Sciences (HGGS).

Her research focuses on the intersection of trade and information and communication technologies, particularly social media. She specializes on the rising phenomenon of ‘social commerce’ and its impact on digital governance in Latin America. She has a particular interest in this region's relations with China, the US and the EU. Her work includes the economic and strategic impact of big tech companies on international trade regulation, global governance and the design of multi-level digital policy. Her doctoral project is supervised by HCIAS Jun.-Prof. Dr. Alejandro Ecker (fist supervisor) and Prof. Dr. Tony Payan from Rice University, USA (second supervisor).