I am an associate professor of urban sociology at Erasmus University Rotterdam, where I study the social and political landscapes of science and technology.

My research focuses on the geographies of knowledge, or how scientific and technical knowledge practices are transformed across space and time. I also study how knowledge and data can rework space and time, for example by shaping changes in urban landscapes, infrastructures, and forms of mobility.

Currently I’m the principal investigator of the DIGIPORTS team at Erasumus University. The team includes myself, postdoctoral researcher Jessica Steinman and two PhD candidates, Miriam Matthiessen and Krista King. The project, entitled Digitalized Ports, Racialized Labor: Shifting Infrastructures for Work in Container Shipping (DIGIPORTS) was awarded an ERC Starting Grant that runs 2022-26.

My first book Mapping Israel, Mapping Palestine: How Occupied Landscapes Shape Scientific Knowledge was published by the MIT Press in 2017. PDFs of my publications are available here. Check out my blog, mastodon, twitter, and instagram accounts for updates on topics like the politics of data, maps and boundaries, digital infrastructures, automated logistics, shipping and circulation, and disaster recovery.

My work combines science and technology studies (STS) with critical geography. I also draw on urban studies, postcolonial and decolonial theory, feminist studies of science, anthropology, and political economy. Overall I work for social and economic justice by coming up with new ways to think about and inhabit the world.

An earlier seed project on port automation and labor received a 2018 Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) Fellowship, which provides full research funding for two years. In addition, I was awarded the 2016 Maastricht University dissertation prize and a 2013 PhD paper prize from the Middle East Section (MES) of the American Anthropological Association (AAA).

I tend to get enthusiastic about things I like, including notebooks, puzzles, cooking, cephalopods, xenarthra, tardigrades, outer space, alternative computing, speculative fiction, and yes, cats.