is a principal researcher for Elastic Borders at the University of Graz, where she is examining the technological and scientific framework that enables the elasticity of the EU’s external border. Her research interests centre on the interactions between science, technology and medicine with political orders, with expertise in critical international relations and theories of sovereignty, race and disability.
New border and surveillance technologies are being lauded for their accuracy and fairness. But how ethical can forced identification be? Late nineteenth-century enthusiasts of pinning down the ‘born criminal’ enlisted scientific advances to sinister ends. Might biometric data processing that registers migrants entering the EU risk a similar transgression of human rights today?