Scholarship and Biography

What do we believe the face can tell us about a person? My research program explores the development and implementation of facial recognition technology in various political contexts. I analyze the sociocultural significance of the face as a symbol, in order to question what expectations about people’s facial appearance are embedded within the design of facial recognition technologies. My first project, based off my dissertation, examines the use of facial recognition to govern U.S. borders and traces the shifting figures of ‘the Other’ that have animated facial recognition programs throughout different eras. My second project investigates synthetic data companies that generate images of realistic-but-imaginary people and interrogate their claim that these synthetic images can resolve problems of diversity and inequality in technology.

Organizational Affiliations

Lecturer in Anthropology, Department of Anthropology, Brandeis University

Education

Yale University
M.Sc.
Stanford University
M.A.
University of California, Berkeley
B.A.