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

University Of California-Irvine, Irvine CA

Investigators

Abstract

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.