RESEARCH & CV
Curriculum Vitae (updated Nov 2018)
My book project, Facing the Child, argues that representational technologies and bureaucratic infrastructures have mutually constructed a virtual child that marshals a robust policing and surveillance network in the name of anti-trafficking. This book constitutes a critical addition to the social study of representational technologies, from forensic sciences to machine learning algorithms, by situating policing as craftwork within a moral economy of labor. My case studies include the art of forensic sketch and graphic design compositions of suspects and victims, as well as the design of non-humans, from digital animations to so-called “sex robots,” implicated in how multiple experts understand pedosexuality and the policing of interfaces and desire. Recent work in STS has interrogated the prejudice baked into algorithms, and my work brings a critical feminist lens to understanding how design biases impact the policing and punishment of potential abusers of children, contributing to longstanding feminist challenges to power in racialized surveillance.
In March 2017 I spoke at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA, as part of a conference on race and gender in computing. You can view a video recording of my talk here.
In August 2016 I completed my dissertation from M.I.T., "Algorithmic Detectives Against Child Trafficking: Data, Entrapment, and the New Global Policing Network." This project was based on fieldwork in the US, the Netherlands, and Thailand.
In 2016 I wrote an article for APC on "Problematizing the Dominant Discourse Around Children, Youth, and the Internet," published as part of the GISWatch Issue on Sexual Rights and the Internet. The report was presented at the Internet Governance Forum 2015.
I am an affiliate at the Harvard Berkman Center for Internet & Society. In June 2015 I gave a talk at Berkman on feminist technology studies and child exploitation research.
From 2011-2013 I worked with danah boyd at Microsoft Research's Human Trafficking Project, researching how networked technologies influence patterns of online sex trafficking, with a focus on classifieds web sites. Our manuscript, entitled "Networked Trafficking: Reflections on Technology and the Anti-Trafficking Movement" is published as an open-access article in Dialectical Anthropology.
My book project, Facing the Child, argues that representational technologies and bureaucratic infrastructures have mutually constructed a virtual child that marshals a robust policing and surveillance network in the name of anti-trafficking. This book constitutes a critical addition to the social study of representational technologies, from forensic sciences to machine learning algorithms, by situating policing as craftwork within a moral economy of labor. My case studies include the art of forensic sketch and graphic design compositions of suspects and victims, as well as the design of non-humans, from digital animations to so-called “sex robots,” implicated in how multiple experts understand pedosexuality and the policing of interfaces and desire. Recent work in STS has interrogated the prejudice baked into algorithms, and my work brings a critical feminist lens to understanding how design biases impact the policing and punishment of potential abusers of children, contributing to longstanding feminist challenges to power in racialized surveillance.
In March 2017 I spoke at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA, as part of a conference on race and gender in computing. You can view a video recording of my talk here.
In August 2016 I completed my dissertation from M.I.T., "Algorithmic Detectives Against Child Trafficking: Data, Entrapment, and the New Global Policing Network." This project was based on fieldwork in the US, the Netherlands, and Thailand.
In 2016 I wrote an article for APC on "Problematizing the Dominant Discourse Around Children, Youth, and the Internet," published as part of the GISWatch Issue on Sexual Rights and the Internet. The report was presented at the Internet Governance Forum 2015.
I am an affiliate at the Harvard Berkman Center for Internet & Society. In June 2015 I gave a talk at Berkman on feminist technology studies and child exploitation research.
From 2011-2013 I worked with danah boyd at Microsoft Research's Human Trafficking Project, researching how networked technologies influence patterns of online sex trafficking, with a focus on classifieds web sites. Our manuscript, entitled "Networked Trafficking: Reflections on Technology and the Anti-Trafficking Movement" is published as an open-access article in Dialectical Anthropology.
