S.E. Freeman

S.'s research broadly explores modes of categorization and enumeration, and the epistemological assumptions and hierarchies of value that shape and are shaped by such practices. Their dissertation asks how 'displacement' is made legible as an indicator of humanitarian need in contexts where migration is marked less by encampment than by more fluid forms of mobility. Attending to the discursive and material practices through which displacement is categorized, measured, and quantified in South Sudan, their dissertation asks how the integration of new technologies such as biometrics and geospatial population projections is changing the identification and evaluation of lives worth saving. Approaching the calculative infrastructure of humanitarian data collection as a contested terrain through which decisions over life and death are made, S.'s work explores how humanitarians are mobilizing new technologies to adapt to a world defined by increasing movement, redefining what constitutes political life for a digital age.

S. is a PhD Candidate (ABD) in Geography with a Designated Emphasis in Science and Technology Studies, and is a Research Fellow at Wesleyan University's Center for the Humanities for Fall 2024.