About

I am a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Zurich studying algorithmic infrastructures and their role in security, mobility, and public governance.

My research examines how algorithms operate as part of wider infrastructures composed of data, software, technical standards, institutional practices, professional expertise, and historical forms of classification. Rather than treating algorithms as isolated pieces of code, I study the processes of algorithmic infrastructuring through which these different elements are assembled, negotiated, and made operational. This approach draws attention to the ongoing work required to make algorithmic systems function—and to how particular understandings of risk become embedded within them.

My broader research interests include postcolonial theory, critical race theory, and critical security studies, with a geographical focus on the African continent. I am particularly interested in how digital security technologies intersect with longer histories of colonialism, racial classification, and mobility control. My doctoral research traced the development of South Africa’s Passenger Name Record regime, connecting contemporary passenger-data systems to these longer histories of governance.

I combine archival research, interviews, fieldwork, and close analysis of software, policy, and technical documents. By following how data, categories, and decisions move across systems and institutions, my work examines how security technologies take shape, whose knowledge they privilege, and with what consequences.