Dr. Michelle Pfeifer
© Michelle Pfeifer
postdoctoral fellow
NameDr. Michelle Pfeifer
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Dr. Michelle Pfeifer is postdoctoral research associate at Dresden University of Technology in the Chair of Digital Cultures. Their research is located at the intersections of (digital) media technology, migration and border studies, and gender and sexuality studies and explores the role of media technology in the production of legal and political knowledge amidst struggles over mobility and movement(s) in postcolonial Europe.
Michelle earned their PhD at the department of Media, Culture, and Communication at New York University. Their book manuscript The Sonic Border Regime: Voice, Race, and Technology in Digital Borderlands takes the so-called refugee crisis as a point of departure to probe how algorithmic and sonic media infrastructures have been employed for migration control, border policing, and asylum administration on a planet where global displacement has become a new norm.Michelle shows how this data-driven form of border and migration control (re)orders articulations of personhood, belonging, and exclusion by valorizing racial and ethnic identification for purposes of surveillance and policing. Working from a critical race, queer, feminist, and postcolonial perspective, they situate contemporary border technologies within a colonial genealogy of producing cultural and racial difference in Europe.
Michelle is currently working on the research project One Million Refugees: Numbers and the Sexuality of Statistics thatanalyzes the sexual and gendered politics of migration data. The project interrogates how the production and circulation of numbers in refugee quotas, allocation keys, and migration statistics are used to authorize bordering practices that decrease possibilities for family unification and pathologize the migrant family. They further connect these strategies to the eugenicist and colonial genealogies of population control to argue that migration statistics, while conjured as objective indicators, are central in framing migration in Europe as crisis and situating migrants as a racialized threat of biological and social contagion.
Michelle’s research has been published in Navigationen, Citizenship Studies, Culture Machine and the anthology Thinking with an Accent from the University of California Press. They co-edited the special issue “The Sexual Politics of Border Control” published in Ethnic and Racial Studies and co-organized the international symposium “Sexuality and Borders”at New York University. Michelle teaches courses on media, identity, and digital cultures as well as critical pedagogy and methods in media studies. They currently serve as Student & Early Career Representative for the Philosophy, Theory and Critique division of the International Communication Association and are a founding member of CaRe: Capacious Relations working group of stsing e.V.. Previously, they were Managing Editor of the journal Catalyst: Feminism, Theory, Technoscience and member of the editorial collective of Women & Performance: a journal of feminist theory. Michelle is the recipient of a doctoral research fellowship from the Berlin Program at Free University Berlin and a dissertation fieldwork grant from the Wenner-Gren foundation as well as grants and awards from the Global Research Initiative at New York University, the NYU Migration Network and the Philosophy, Theory and Critique Division of the International Communications Association. Michelle is an alumna of the German National Academic Foundation and holds an MA in Social and Cultural Analysis from NYU and a BA from Amsterdam University College.
Dr. Michelle Pfeifer is postdoctoral research associate at Dresden University of Technology in the Chair of Digital Cultures. Their research is located at the intersections of (digital) media technology, migration and border studies, and gender and sexuality studies and explores the role of media technology in the production of legal and political knowledge amidst struggles over mobility and movement(s) in postcolonial Europe.
Michelle earned their PhD at the department of Media, Culture, and Communication at New York University. Their book manuscript The Sonic Border Regime: Voice, Race, and Technology in Digital Borderlands takes the so-called refugee crisis as a point of departure to probe how algorithmic and sonic media infrastructures have been employed for migration control, border policing, and asylum administration on a planet where global displacement has become a new norm. Michelle shows how this data-driven form of border and migration control (re)orders articulations of personhood, belonging, and exclusion by valorizing racial and ethnic identification for purposes of surveillance and policing. Working from a critical race, queer, feminist, and postcolonial perspective, they situate contemporary border technologies within a colonial genealogy of producing cultural and racial difference in Europe.
Michelle is currently working on the research project One Million Refugees: Numbers and the Sexuality of Statistics that analyzes the sexual and gendered politics of migration data. The project interrogates how the production and circulation of numbers in refugee quotas, allocation keys, and migration statistics are used to authorize bordering practices that decrease possibilities for family unification and pathologize the migrant family. They further connect these strategies to the eugenicist and colonial genealogies of population control to argue that migration statistics, while conjured as objective indicators, are central in framing migration in Europe as crisis and situating migrants as a racialized threat of biological and social contagion.
Michelle’s research has been published in Navigationen, Citizenship Studies, Culture Machine and the anthology Thinking with an Accent from the University of California Press. They co-edited the special issue “The Sexual Politics of Border Control” published in Ethnic and Racial Studies and co-organized the international symposium “Sexuality and Borders” at New York University. Michelle teaches courses on media, identity, and digital cultures as well as critical pedagogy and methods in media studies. They currently serve as Student & Early Career Representative for the Philosophy, Theory and Critique division of the International Communication Association and are a founding member of CaRe: Capacious Relations working group of stsing e.V.. Previously, they were Managing Editor of the journal Catalyst: Feminism, Theory, Technoscience and member of the editorial collective of Women & Performance: a journal of feminist theory. Michelle is the recipient of a doctoral research fellowship from the Berlin Program at Free University Berlin and a dissertation fieldwork grant from the Wenner-Gren foundation as well as grants and awards from the Global Research Initiative at New York University, the NYU Migration Network and the Philosophy, Theory and Critique Division of the International Communications Association. Michelle is an alumna of the German National Academic Foundation and holds an MA in Social and Cultural Analysis from NYU and a BA from Amsterdam University College.
| Since 2022 | Postdoctoral Fellow in Artificial Intelligence, Emerging Technologies, and Social Change, Technische Universität Dresden, Chair of Digital Cultures and Societal Change. |
| 2024 |
Visiting Scholar, Department of Social Anthropology, Panteion University, Athens, Greece |
| 2022 |
Ph.D. Media, Culture, and Communication, New York University (with distinction) Dissertation: "Data and Borders: Tracking media technologies of border and migration control in Europe" |
| 2016-2022 | Adjunct Instructor, Department of Media, Culture, and Communication, New York University |
| 2019-2020 |
Research Fellow, Berlin Program for Advanced German and European Studies, Freie Universität Berlin |
| 2016 | M.A. Social and Cultural Analysis, New York University. |
| 2013 | B.A. Literature and History, Amsterdam University College. |
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Digital Media Studies Sound and Visual Studies
Media Anthropology Trans* Studies
Gender and Sexuality Studies Critical Migration and Border Studies
Critical Data and AI Studies Science and Technology Studies
Postcolonial Studies Critical Pedagogy
Books
The Sonic Border Regime: Voice, Race, and Technology in Digital Borderlands (Book Manuscript under review)
The Sexual Politics of Border Control. Eds. Billy Holzberg, Anouk Madörin, Michelle Pfeifer. London: Routledge, 2022.
Peer-reviewed Articles
Pfeifer, Michelle & Patricia Ward. “Flattening the map: How human movement is turned into a logistical problem, the cases of asylum and humanitarian relief,” 2024, Navigationen (forthcoming).
Pfeifer, M. 2018. “Becoming Flesh: Refugee hunger strike and embodiments of refusal in German necropolitical spaces.” Citizenship Studies 22.5, 459-474.
Introductions
Pfeifer, M. Editorial, “Solidarities Dispatch.” Against Catastrophe. Issue 4. https://againstcatastrophe.net/
Guest-Edited Journal Issues
“When was the Smart Border?,” with Philipp Seuferling (accepted at Cultural Studies)
“Solidarities Dispatch.” Against Catastrophe. Issue 4. https://againstcatastrophe.net/
Book Reviews & Short Form
Pfeifer, Michelle & Philipp Seuferling. “Smart Borders and their critiques are too focused on the tech: why we need a historical approach to envision different futures,” LSE Media Blog.
Slava Greenberg, Michelle Pfeifer, Vijay Ramjattan, Pooja Rangan, Ragini Tharoor Srinivasan, and Pavitra Sundar Thinking with “Thinking with an Accent”: A Roundtable Conversation, with, CaMP Anthropology, Nov 6 2023, https://shorturl.at/iqE19
Pfeifer, Michelle. “Your Voice is (not) your Passport,” Sounding Out, Racial Bias in Speech AI Series, June 12, https://rb.gy/k0p25.
Pfeifer, M. 2016 “Review of Postkoloniale Theorie: Eine kritische Einführung,” María Do Mar Castro Varela & Nikita Dhawan. Femina Politica Vol. 1. 185-186.
Pfeifer, M. 2015 “Review of Decolonizing Enlightenment: Transnational Justice, Human Rights and Democracy in a Postcolonial World,” ed. Nikita Dhawan. Feministische Studien Vol. 2. 348-350.
| 10/2022 | Panel Organizer, “Border (dis)continuities: media technologies in migration governance across past, present, and future,” European Communication Conference, Aarhus, Denmark, (with Philipp Seuferling). |
| 10/2022 | Conference Paper, “Crises and Reform: Administering Migration Infrastructures,” European Communication Conference, Aarhus, Denmark. |
| 06/2021 |
Conference Paper, “Intelligent Borders? Securitizing Smartphones in the European Border Regime,” Annual Conference, European Network for Cinema and Media Studies, online. |
| 06/2021 | Conference Paper, “The Voice and the Archive: Tracing Media Genealogies of Sonic Control,” Graduate Workshop: Migration as Method: Media, Circulation, and Knowledge Production, online. |
| 04/2021 | Discussant, Online Lecture Series on Media and Migration, European Network for Cinema and Media Studies. |
| 03/2021 | Guest Lecture, Topic: Borders, Media, and Technology, Media and Migration (graduate), Dr. Radha Hegde, New York University. |
| 03/2021 | Guest Lecture, Topic: Designing (In)equalities, Media, Culture, and Society (undergraduate), Dr. Billy Holzberg, King’s College London. |
| 02/2021 | Invited Talk, “The ‘Voices of the World’: Temporal and Spatial Resonances of Sound Archives,” Research Colloquium, department of Media, Culture, and Communication, online. |
| 04/2020 | Guest Lecture, Topic: Linguistic Profiling and Language Recognition, Language, Communication, and Culture (undergraduate), Dr. Beth Semel, Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| 10/2019 | Conference Paper, "Listening for the Border: the Mediated Voice, Linguistic Expertise, and Racializing Technology," Digital Fortress Europe, European Communication Research & Education Association’s Diaspora, Migration & the Media section, Brussels, Belgium. |
| 09/2019 | Conference Paper, “Entanglements Between Border Security and Voice Recognition,” Annual Meeting of the Society for the Social Study of Science, New Orleans, USA. |
| 08/2019 | Invited Talk, “Sonic Borders,” Interrupted Cyfem and Queer symposium, Berlin, Germany. |
| 05/2019 | Conference Paper, “Your Voice is (not) your Passport: Technologies of Sound and Race in Germany,” NORA Conference on Border Regimes, Territorial Discourses, University of Iceland. |
| 11/2018 | Conference Paper, “The Invisible Eye in the Sky: Remote Sensing at the Mediterranean Borders,” National Women’s Studies Association Annual Conference, Atlanta, Georgia. |
| 10/2018 | Invited Talk, “Your Voice is (not) your Passport: Voice Forensics and Asylum,” Transsubstantiating Transmission: Walls become Ports become Channels, NYU Berlin, Germany. |
| 08/2018 |
Conference Paper, “Racializing Migrancy: Genealogies of Managing Mobility in Germany and its Colonies,” European Association of Social Anthropologists Biennial Conference. Stockholm, Sweden. |
| 06/2017 | Conference Paper, “Racializing Technologies of Identification, Affective Governance, and Distributed Humanity in German Asylum Policies,” Princeton-Weimar Summer School for Media Studies, IKKM, Weimar, Germany. |
| 05/2016 | Conference Co-organizer “Feelings of Empire: Affect, Biopower, and Racialization.” With Prof. Joseph Masco, Prof. Cristina Beltrán, Prof. Jasbir Puar, department of Social and Cultural Analysis, New York University. |
| 03/2016 | Conference Paper, “Becoming Flesh: Refugee Hunger Strike and German Politics of Racialization,” Transparency/ Opacity Workshop Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. |
| 02/2016 | Conference Paper, “Becoming Flesh: Genealogies of Racialization and Refugee Hunger Strike,” NYU Postman Conference, New York University. New York. |
2024 Postdoc Starter Kit, Graduate Academy, TUD Dresden
2024 TransCampus Project Funding, King’s College London & TUD Dresden
2024 Diversity and Inclusion Anreiz Fonds, TUD Dresden
2023 Funding Program Internationalization, TU Dresden
2023 Global Research Fund, London School of Economics
2023 Dissertation Distinction Award, Department of Media, Culture, and Communication, New York University.
2022 Top Student Paper Award, Philosophy, Theory and Critique Division of the International Communications Association
2022 Steinhardt Dissertation Finishing Award Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, New York University.
2022 Dissertation Writing Fellowship, Global Research Initiative, NYU Athens.
2021 Finalist Award, Graduate Student Award for Summer Research on Migration, NYU Migration Network.
2020 Phyllis and Gerald Leboff Fellowship for Dissertation Research, Department of Media, Culture, and Communication, New York University.
2020 Dissertation Fieldwork Grant, Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research.
2019 Dissertation Research Fellowship, Berlin Program, Free University Berlin.
2019 Neil Postman Doctoral Award, Department of Media, Culture, and Communication, New York University.
2019 Conference Grant, Department of Media, Culture, and Communication, New York University.
2016 Tuition Fellowship and Stipend, Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, New York University.
2012 Fellowship, German National Academic Foundation.
Instructor of Record
Fall 2024 Biopolitical Media: Race, Sexuality, and the Politics of Reproduction, TU Dresden. (BA & MA)
Spring 2024 School of (Un)Thought: Tools and Technologies of Study, TU Dresden, (with Nelly Y. Pinkrah). (BA & MA)
Fall 2021
Media and Identity (undergraduate), New York University
Fall 2020
Media and Identity (undergraduate), New York University (online instruction).
Fall 2018
Media and Cultural Analysis (undergraduate), New York University.
Teaching Assistant and Section Instructor
Spring 2017
History of Media and Communication (undergraduate), New York University
Fall 2016
Introduction to Media, Culture, and Communication (undergraduate), New York University
Guest Lectures
Winter 2024 Topic: Refugee Media Activism, Narrating migration (undergraduate), Dr. Radha Hegde, NYU Berlin
Spring 2021
Topic: Borders, Media, and Technology, Media and Migration (graduate), New York University
Spring 2021
Topic: Designing (In)equalities, Media, Culture, and Society (undergraduate), King’s College London
Spring 2020
Topic: Linguistic Profiling and Language Recognition, Language, Communication, and Culture (undergraduate), Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Gender Concept Group TU Dresden
- STS MigTech
- SCMS - Society for Cinema and Media Studies
- 4S - Society for Social Studies of Science
- GfM - Gesellschaft für Medienwissenschaft
- ICA - International Communications Association
- ECREA - European Communication Research and Education Association
- Workshop “Listening in, Sounding out: Resonances of Future Pasts,” part of the festival for contemporary music at Hellerau: European Centre for the Arts. May 6-7 2023 (with Nelly Y. Pinkrah).
- Managing Editor @ Catalyst: Feminism, Theory, Technoscience
- Editorial Collective Member @ Women & Performance: a journal of feminist theory
- Weizenbaum-Forum: 'Smart Borders'? Digitalisierung und Migrationskontrolle
- Lecture on Automated Dialect Recognition in Asylum Administration at “restartBAMF -Digitalisation in German Asylum and Migration Law" symposium of the Association of Refugee Law Clinics in Germany,June 12 2021.
- Interview Machine Listening: a curriculum.
- Symposium, “Sexuality and Borders,” department of Media, Culture, and Communication, New York University, April 4-5. International Symposium Sexuality & Borders
- 2016 Conference “Feelings of Empire: Affect, Biopower, and Racialization.” With Prof. Joseph Masco, Prof. Cristina Beltrán, Prof. Jasbir Puar, department of Social and Cultural Analysis, New York University. May 6.
Since 2023
Member, FAM - Forum Anti-Racism Media Studies
2023
Manuscript review, New Media & Society
Since 2023
Student & Early Career Representative for Philosophy, Theory and Critique division of the International Communication Association
2020
Manuscript review, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies
2018-2019
Organizer of Doctoral Research Colloquium, Department of Media, Culture, and Communication, New York University
2017-2019
PhD Student Representative, Department of Media, Culture, and Communication, New York University
2015
Graduate Student Committee Representative, Department of Social and Cultural Analysis, New York University