Doctoral Dissertation Research: Digital Technologies, Legal Evidence, and Counterterrorism

该奖项全部或部分根据2021年美国救援计划法案（公法117-2）资助。数字技术已成为反恐的重要资产，因为它们促进了监控实践，如分析，生物识别或实时监控。然而，很少有经验性的社会法学研究探讨了数字技术和专家如何实现怀疑，并产生恐怖主义的数字证据。这个博士论文项目调查了数字数据如何被解释和动员为跨不同专业领域的恐怖主义证据。除了为研究生的培训提供资金外，该项目还通过介绍、出版物、讲座和公开会议广泛传播其数据和研究结果，从而提高公众对科学以及与社会法律和证据分析有关的科学方法的理解。这篇博士论文研究调查了通过专家实践利用数字证据是否改变了人们对恐怖主义和反恐的理解。该项目提出了三个核心问题：什么是恐怖主义的数字证据？数字实体如何实现对恐怖主义的怀疑？当通过数字技术与新形式的证据互动时，反恐实践会发生什么？研究人员通过对法院，恐怖主义研究人员，数字取证论坛，公司和讨论的民族志调查来探索这些问题。研究人员还根据新闻文章，社交媒体帖子和法律的文件进行档案研究。使用一系列的数据收集和分析的民族志技术（包括访谈，参与者观察和档案分析），研究人员跟踪什么考虑因素将数字数据转化为证据。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2). Digital technologies have become an essential asset in counterterrorism as they facilitate surveillance practices such as profiling, biometrics, or real-time monitoring. However, few empirical sociolegal studies have examined how digital technologies and experts materialize suspicion and produce digital evidence of terrorism. This doctoral dissertation project investigates how digital data is interpreted and mobilize as evidence of terrorism across different fields of expertise. In addition to providing funding for the training of a graduate student, the project widely disseminates its data and findings through presentations, publications, lectures, and public meetings, thereby improving the public's understanding of science and the scientific method as is pertains to sociolegal and evidentiary analysis. This doctoral dissertation research investigates whether the utilization of digital evidence through expert practices changes the way terrorism and counterterrorism are understood. This project asks three central questions: What constitutes digital evidence of terrorism? How digital entities materialize suspicion of terrorism? What happens to counterterrorism practices when interacting with new forms of evidence through digital technology? The researcher explores these questions through an ethnographic investigation of courts, terrorism researchers, digital forensics forums, firms, and discussions. The researcher also conducts archival research based on news articles, social media posts, and legal documents. Using a range of ethnographic techniques of data collection and analysis (including interviews, participant observation, and archival analysis), the researcher tracks what considerations turn digital data into evidence. The resulting research products contribute to scientific debates about terrorism, suspicion, digital data, evidence-making, and expertise.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.