How can technology contribute to the 'good society', and what does 'good society’ even mean?I address these questions in my work on studying science and technology as social practices. I am particularly interested in how technologies shape the ways we know and (un)know human beings and relationships, individuals, communities and society. The fields I primarily study this in are security & justice (forensics and biometrics), and human health.
My work has been published in many peer-reviewed journals, including BioSocieties, the British Journal for the History of Science, Forensic Science Review, Minerva, Leonardo, New Genetics & Society, Sociology of Health & Illness, and others. I have edited books for Routledge and IOS Press, and regularly peer-review journal articles and grant proposals.
I was part of the multi-national FP7 Network of Excellence EUROFORGEN, and am a founding member of the interdisciplinary scientific initiative on new and emerging forensic genetics technologies WIE-DNA (Germany) and of the global network STS MIGTEC (Science and Technology Studies of Migration and Technologies). I am a member of the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) and the European Association for Studies of Science and Technology (EASST). Since 2015, I have been building an interdisciplinary and international network for the Social Studies of Forensic Science.
Prior to joining the Centre for Crime and Policing I was Senior Research Associate at the Policy, Ethics & Life Sciences Research Centre, Newcastle University, and previously also worked as researcher at the Universities of Durham and Edinburgh, and King's College London.
I am particularly interested in studying disciplinary, cross-disciplinary and cross-boundary knowledge production and organisation, their social & ethical aspects, and issues of governance here, in the fields of forensics, biometrics, and health technology and systems.
In my work I draw on frameworks and methods from Science and Technology Studies (STS), Sociology, Anthropology, Sociological/Empirical Ethics, Bioethics, Public Engagement, and Critical Policy Analysis. My work is interdisciplinary and integrates engagement with scientific practitioners, publics & policy-makers.
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