Dr. Michelle Pfeifer

Portraitbild einer Person mit kurzen, roten Haaren und Brille © Michelle Pfeifer

postdoctoral fellow

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Dr. Michelle Pfeifer

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Dr. Michelle Pfeifer is postdoctoral research associate in Artificial Intelligence, Emerging Technologies, and Social Change 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 and is currently working on a book manuscript titled Data on the Move: Voice, Algorithms, and Asylum in Digital Borderlandstakes 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 Statisticsthat 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 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 has taught courses on media and identity 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. 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.

Current Projects and Upcoming Events
Academic Career
Since 2022 Postdoctoral Fellow in Artificial Intelligence, Emerging Technologies, and Social Change, Technische Universität Dresden, Chair of Digital Cultures and Societal Change.
2022  Ph.D. Media, Culture, and Communication, New York University.
2016 M.A. Social and Cultural Analysis, New York University.
2013 B.A. Literature and History, Amsterdam University College.
Research Areas
  • Digital Media Technology
  • Critical Migration and Border Studies                                
  • Gender and Sexuality Studies   
  • Queer and Trans Studies
  • Sound Studies                
  • Critical Race and Decolonial Studies                    
  • Critical Data and Algorithm Studies
  • Feminist Methodologies
Publications

Book Manuscript in Preparation

  • Data on the Move: Voice, Algorithms, and Asylum in Digital Borderlands

Peer-reviewed Articles

Book Chapters and Introductions

Guest-Edited Journal Issues

Book Reviews

  • 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. 
Talks & Lectures
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. 
Grants, Awards & Honors
2023

Funding Program Internationalization, Dresden University of Technology
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 Dissertation Fieldwork Grant, Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research.
2019 Dissertation Research Fellowship, Berlin Program, Free University Berlin.
Teaching

Instructor of Record

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

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

Membership & Affiliation
  • 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
Past Roles, Projects, and Organization
Academic and Departmental Services

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

About this page

Katharina Fritzsch
Last modified: May 25, 2023