Doctoral Dissertation Research: Biometric Identification Technologies and the Citizenship Document Validation Process

在旨在更新国家身份识别技术的安全措施加强的背景下，数千名美国公民被要求证明其出生的有效性。这个博士论文项目旨在了解更新生物识别安全系统的努力如何影响公民的生活，特别是那些生活在他们经常必须依靠文件技术来证明自己身份的地区的人。除了促进人类学研究生的社会科学培训外，该项目还将产生政策简报，互动讨论会，简短的纪录片和其他多模式工作，以帮助公众和决策者了解新形式的生物识别技术和治理的影响。该项目还扩大了代表性不足的群体对科学的参与。通过在线研究、《信息自由法》要求以及与州政府官员的半结构化访谈，该项目调查了哪些社会政治进程加速了新形式的生物识别安全。实地考察包括在美国的观察方法地方法院听证会和参与观察公民，因为他们浏览国家官僚机构，以建立他们的文件的真实性。其他方法包括与律师、法官、辩护律师和其他官员的半结构化访谈，以及文件、法庭和成绩单分析。这项研究将有助于了解生物识别技术和文件监控的新模式如何有助于产生新形式的身份不稳定性。这项研究将进一步理论辩论的文件，技术和治理的作用，在塑造会员边界，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进行评估，被认为值得支持的搜索.

In the context of heightened security measures aimed at updating state identification technologies, thousands of U.S. citizens have been asked to prove the validity of their birth. This doctoral dissertation project aims to understand how efforts to update biometric security systems impact the lives of citizens, particularly those living in regions where they frequently must rely on document technology to prove their identity. In addition to furthering the social scientific training of a graduate student in anthropology, this project will generate policy briefs, interactive discussion sessions, a short documentary, and other multimodal work to help inform the public and policy makers about the impact of new forms of biometric technology and governance. This project also broadens the participation of underrepresented groups in science. Through online research, FOIA requests, and semi-structured interviews with state officials, this project investigates what socio-political processes have accelerated new forms of biometric security. Fieldwork includes observational methods at U.S. District Court hearings and participant observation with citizens as they navigate state bureaucracies to establish the veracity of their documents. Other methods include semi-structured interviews with attorneys, judges, advocates and other officials, as well as document, court, and transcript analysis. This research will contribute to an understanding of how new modes of biometric technology and document surveillance help to produce new forms of identity precarity. The research will further theoretical debates concerning the role of documents, technology, and governance in shaping membership boundaries, with an emphasis on understanding what role biopolitical processes such as bureaucratization and surveillance have in social scientific understandings of citizenship.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.