Isabella Mariani

Isabella Luisa Mariani is a doctoral candidate at UC Berkeley School of Law in the Jurisprudence and Social Policy program with a designated emphasis in political economy. Her research lies at the intersection of law, philosophy, and political economy. Her dissertation examines the attention economy, analyzing its effects on our autonomy and interpersonal relationships, the market power of technology companies, and potential regulatory and legal responses.

She is the co-leader of “The Social Effects and Normativity of Data-Mining, Algorithms, and the Digital Economy” research team, which was awarded the Berkeley Economy and Society Initiative Collaborative Technology Research Grant for the 2025-2026 academic year. She previously co-led the UC Berkeley Social Science Matrix Research Grant for 2024-2025. She was a doctoral fellow with the Berkeley Center for Private Law Theory for the 2024-2025 academic year.

She holds a master of arts in philosophy from the University of Auckland, for which she received first class honors for her thesis, entitled Corruption and Justice: Restoring Institutional Integrity. She is the recipient of the 2016 University of Auckland Faculty of Arts International Master’s Degree Scholarship. She holds a joint honors bachelor of arts in philosophy and political science from McGill University. Her work is funded by the Berkeley Economy and Society Initiative.