Guiding principles
academic integrity; intellectual and organisational independence; social justice; inclusion; non-discrimination; data protection; transparency; conflict-of-interest management; recognition of authorship; and open access where feasible. This also includes harassment prevention.
Statutory highlights
- LASTLab is an autonomous multinodal network.
- The network does not currently have legal personality. Its internal instruments do not constitute a legally registered foundation or association.
- Until LASTLab has legal personality, projects requiring legal or financial administration may be carried out through administrative entities selected case by case.
- The Statutes of LASTLab do not replace or modify the competencies or rules of participating institutions and organizations.
- Spanish is the official working language, and English functions as a courtesy translation.
- There is a preference for open access whenever possible.
Governance structure
Dr Horacio Correa Lucero. Responsible for executive, academic, and strategic leadership, project coordination and partnerships, and convening and chairing the CAM within statutory limits.
General Directorate
Dr. Horacio Correa Lucero
IEAD–USFQ Node Directorate — subject to institutional procedures
Dr. Cheryl Martens
Instituto de Estudios Avanzados en Desigualdades, Universidad San Francisco de QuitoICSyA–UNAJ Node Directorate — subject to institutional procedures
Dr. Horacio Correa Lucero
Instituto de Ciencias Sociales y Administración, Universidad Nacional Arturo JauretcheDirector of Diversa — organizational node of LASTLab
Diana Mosquera
Diversa, QuitoDiversa is an organizational node of LASTLab, directed by Diana Mosquera. Membership in the network does not itself confer governance powers or legal representation.
Multinodal Articulation Council (CAM)
The CAM is the network's representative and deliberative body. It advises on ordinary management and holds specific internal decision-making powers concerning matters expressly set out in the Statutes, including admission of nodes, statutory amendments, and decisions regarding the General Directorate. It cannot impose legal or financial obligations upon institutions without their consent.
Legal and financial arrangements
The internal instruments do not themselves constitute a registered foundation or association. When required, individual projects may use a separately authorised administrative entity; such an entity does not govern the whole network by virtue of this role.
People in the network
Horacio Correa Lucero
Founder and General Director
Universidad Nacional Arturo Jauretche; investigador externo del IEAD–USFQ.
He holds a PhD in Social Sciences and Humanities from Universidad Nacional de Quilmes and a Master's degree in Social Studies of Science and Technology from the University of Salamanca. He is a lecturer and researcher at Universidad Nacional Arturo Jauretche and an external researcher at IEAD–USFQ. His work brings together science and technology studies, philosophy of technology, critical theory, and political economy to examine artificial intelligence, digital technologies, power, labour, inequalities, and technological dependency in Latin America. He has directed research projects on emerging technologies and promotes regional academic cooperation. He is the founder and General Director of LASTLab.
Cheryl Martens
IEAD–USFQ Node Directorate (subject to applicable procedures)
Instituto de Estudios Avanzados en Desigualdades, Universidad San Francisco de Quito.
Cheryl Martens holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Manchester. She is a Professor of Social Sciences and Director of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Inequalities at Universidad San Francisco de Quito. Her research connects communication, community media, digital activism, gender, migration, and social inequalities. She works from critical and interdisciplinary perspectives, with an emphasis on participation and Latin American contexts. She supported LASTLab's early development and contributed to its organisational consolidation and institutional coordination. She also helps build a regional network that connects academic research, institutions, and civil society organisations across Latin America.
Diana Mosquera
Director of Diversa; foundational collaborator of LASTLab
Diversa, Quito, Ecuador.
Diana Mosquera is a physicist and cognitive scientist with more than ten years of experience in artificial intelligence. She directs Diversa, combining applied research and technical development with critical and feminist perspectives. Her work addresses migration, natural resources, human rights, technology governance, and global AI production chains. She has studied AI ethics and governance, cooperative AI, and sociotechnical approaches through programmes at MILA and The New School. She is a Fellow at the Center for AI and Digital Policy (CAIDP), contributing to comparative public policy analysis. Her research and creative projects explore the 'hidden geographies' of AI and social impacts.
Gabriel Perdomo
Research collaborator
Gabriel Perdomo is a researcher with a background in social psychology and programming. His work combines psychosocial analysis, institutional studies, and critical perspectives on technology, with particular attention to artificial intelligence, subjectivity, clinical practices, and social conditions. His interests include childhood and youth vulnerability, issues affecting children, and changing forms of technologically mediated human interaction. At LASTLab he participates in sociotechnical research and contributes to the development, organisation, and documentation of digital tools and platforms. His approach seeks to connect conceptual analysis of artificial intelligence with technical procedures and reproducible research methods across diverse interdisciplinary projects.
Mónica Casanovas
Researcher, ICSyA–UNAJ
Instituto de Ciencias Sociales y Administración, Universidad Nacional Arturo Jauretche.
Norma Mónica Casanovas is an agricultural engineer, lecturer, and researcher at Universidad Nacional Arturo Jauretche. Her areas of work include sustainable development, climate change, data science, and economic and sustainability indicators, with attention to the connections between productive processes, environmental change, and social conditions. She has led and co-led research projects and participates in interdisciplinary initiatives on digital technologies, development, and health. Within LASTLab, her contributions connect the analysis of technological systems with questions about resources, sustainability, and territorial inequalities, bringing together scientific knowledge, applied research, and regional challenges through an interdisciplinary and critical perspective.
Lizette Aguirre
Researcher, ICSyA–UNAJ
Instituto de Ciencias Sociales y Administración, Universidad Nacional Arturo Jauretche.
Lizette Aguirre is an economist from Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador and has an MA in Social Economy from Universidad Nacional de General Sarmiento. She is a lecturer and researcher associated with the Institute of Social Sciences and Administration at Universidad Nacional Arturo Jauretche, where she coordinates the Bachelor's programme in Administration. Her areas of work include social and solidarity economy, local economic development, productive transformation, and public policy. She participates in research projects and institutional collaboration, bringing an economic perspective to social organisation, productive capacities, and development. At LASTLab she examines socioeconomic implications of digital technologies.