Since its founding in 2018, the Border Tech Lab has been interrogating boundary-making processes at the intersection of material and symbolic sociotechnical relations. Our projects tackle the reproduction, negotiation, and contestation of unjust social and technological arrangements across time and space—from the vulnerabilities of the gig economy to the toxicity of electronics manufacturing.

Our chief concern is the study of boundaries (as conceptual, epistemological, political demarcations) through practices of encounter, difference, and signification. Boundaries are examined through a range of critical lenses such as those developed by feminist STS, critical race STS, digital studies, and American/ethnic studies. This has meant being attuned to practices of care, invisible labor, differential treatments of populations, the relation between identity and technological use, and more. Members of the Lab participate in team-based research using a variety of methods that include archival research, situational analysis, oral history, discourse analysis, and user configurations.