Our Projects

In this area, we explore how surveillance techniques and technologies, from pre-digital methods of data gathering to contemporary algorithmic tracking, shape everyday life. We focus on how intrusive surveillance disproportionately targets racialized, low-income, and other marginalized communities, often operating without transparency or accountability. Our work critically examines how surveillance practices redefine concepts of privacy, consent, and state authority—both in fragile states across the Global South and in wealthier regions of the world. Through this research, we aim to expose harmful surveillance regimes and advocate for more just and equitable data practices.

Population data, which is gathered gathered through tools like censuses, health surveys, educational records, and biometric systems, plays a foundational role in shaping public policy and distribution of economic resources and political representation. Our research interrogates how these large-scale data systems categorize individuals and communities, often in ways that reinforce structural inequalities. With a primary focus on census data, we ask: Who gets counted, how are categories constructed, and what is excluded from the official record? We examine the political and historical forces behind data infrastructures and explore how they might be reimagined to center justice, inclusion, and the agency of communities.

Digital archives, particularly those created by diasporic and grassroots communities, are vital tools for preserving memory, shaping historical understanding, and resisting exclusionary narratives. This research area investigates how archiving practices influence which voices are preserved, how histories are constructed, and what is remembered or forgotten. We highlight the importance of community-based digital archives as acts of cultural preservation and political resistance. Our work addresses questions of access, authorship, and representation in digital collections, and supports the development of participatory, inclusive, and decolonial approaches to archiving in the digital era.