Ongoing Research Projects

The Cybernetic Border

Research conducted in this area examines iterative data capture, processing, and circulation as core processes in the articulation of sovereignty. As border and immigration enforcement draw from an ever-growing information infrastructure, the task ahead is to understand the relations that made these possible and, conversely, the relations that infrastructures make. This has led us to explore, for example, how national, racial, and political boundaries shape and are shaped by sociotechnical arrangements.

Computing Américas

This research area is devoted to documenting and analyzing the practices and cultures of computing across the American hemisphere with a distinct focus on Latin America and Latina/o/es. Current work in this area relates to Dr. Chaar López' project titled Border Circuits. The project deals with the history of computer manufacturing across the US-México borderlands through the experiences, practices, and ideas of multiple communities including U.S. and Mexican factory administrators, Mexican and indigenous women workers, and Mexican government officials.

Digital Labor and the Future of Work

Research in this area examines labor arrangements in information infrastructures and the politics embedded in labor management platforms. One of the paradigms that we currently study is the "future of work"—such as manifested in networked remote work arrangements and in microwork platforms. Our biggest concern is to interrogate the racial ordering of technological solutionism, or how the belief in technological development and use, as means for human improvement, are entangled with discriminatory practices.