KEREN WEITZBERG, PhD
I write about technology, biometrics, immigration, & borders for a variety of platforms, ranging from top academic presses to popular blogs. Below are some of my recent publications:
Online Work
Gateway or Barrier? The Contested Politics of Humanitarian Biometrics. Datafication and Digital Rights (blog) (12 January 2021).
Passing as a Refugee. Africa is a Country (10 November 2020).
Machine-Readable Refugees. London Review of Books (LRB) Blog (14 September 2020).
In Kenya, You Cannot Go Anywhere Without an ID. I Don’t Have One. Mail & Guardian (13 April 2020).
Mobile Credit Expands Mass Surveillance of Ordinary Kenyans. Coda Story (11 September 2019).
Kenya's Controversial Biometric Project is Shrouded in Secrecy. Coda Story (3 May 2019).
Conversation with Ruben Andersson. Africa is a Country (9 July 2018).
Unthinking Refugee Studies. Africa is a Country (11 April 2018).
Conversation with Abdul Adan. Africa is a Country (11 October 2017)
Jeffrey Gettleman's Tired Tome. Africa is a Country (21 August 2017).
Can African States Offer New Approaches to Refugee Asylum? Africa is a Country (23 December 2016)
Book Projects
Biometrics from the Margins (In Progress).
Academic Papers
(In progress) Exclusion within National Biometric and Digital ID Systems: Case Studies from the Global South. White paper for the Alan Turing Institute.
(Forthcoming) Countering the Spread of Biometrics: The Use and Abuse of Biometric Technologies for Counterterrorism. Report for Privacy International (2020).
Globalizing Racism and De-provincializing Muslim Africa. Modern Intellectual History (May 2021). Co-authored with Alden Young.
Between Surveillance and Recognition: Rethinking Digital Identity in Aid. Big Data and Society (1 April 2021). Co-authored with Margie Cheesman, Aaron Martin, and Emrys Schoemaker.
Biometrics, Race Making, and White Exceptionalism: The Controversy Over Universal Fingerprinting in Post-World War II Kenya. The Journal of African History 61:1 (March 2020): 23-43.
Research Blog