Dr. Michelle Pfeifer

Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiterin

Raum + Kontakt
Raum: GB 1/140
E-Mail: Michelle.Pfeifer@ruhr-uni-bochum.de

Sprechstunde: Donnerstags 16-17 Uhr oder nach Vereinbarung 

Buchung Sprechsstrunde

BIO

  • I am postdoctoral research associate at the Institute for Media Studies. My research examines the intersections of (digital) media technologies, borders, migration, queer and Trans studies, and asks how digital media inform the politics of recognition, belonging, and personhood. 
  • Previously I was postdoctoral research associate at the Chair of Digital Cultures at Dresden University of Technology and I earned my PhD at the department of Media, Culture, and Communication at New York University. My first book The Sonic Border Regime: Voice, Race, and Technology in Digital Borderlands is under contract with Duke University Press and probes 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. Working from a critical race, queer, feminist, and postcolonial perspective, I situate contemporary border technologies within a colonial genealogy of producing cultural and racial difference in Europe. I regularly give public talks and collaborate with civil society, cultural and activist initiatives struggling against state violence. 
  • I am currently working on a research project about how demographic media and imaginaries are articulated at the intersections of migration, climate, sex, and AI. 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. I 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. 
  • My research has been published in Cultural Studies, Navigationen, Citizenship Studies, Culture Machine and the anthology Thinking with an Accent from the University of California Press. I 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. I teach courses on media, identity, and digital cultures as well as critical pedagogy and methods in media studies. I served 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, I was Managing Editor of the journal Catalyst: Feminism, Theory, Technoscience and member of the editorial collective of Women & Performance: a journal of feminist theory. I am 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. I am an alumna of the German National Academic Foundation and hold an MA in Social and Cultural Analysis from NYU and a BA from Amsterdam University College.

ACADEMIC CAREER

  • Since 05/2026            Postdoctoral Fellow, Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany, Gender Media
    Studies with special focus on diversity
  • 08/2022-04/2026        Postdoctoral Fellow, TUD Dresden University of Technology,   Germany,
    Chair of Digital Cultures
  • 10/2025-03/2026        Visiting Fellow, Center for Advanced Internet Studies, Bochum, Germany
  • 02/2024-03/2024        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“
  • 09/2017-09/2022        Research Assistant, Department of Media Culture, and Communication,
    New York University 
  • 09/2016-12/2021        Adjunct Instructor, Media, Culture and Communication, New York University
  • 10/2019 – 09/2020     Doctoral Fellow, Berlin Program for Advanced German and European                                     Studies, Free University Berlin  
  • 2016                M.A., Social and Cultural Analysis, New York University
  • 2013                B.A., Literature and History, Amsterdam University College

RESEARCH AREAS

  • Digital Media Studies
  • Sound and Visual Studies
  • Media Anthropology
  • Trans StudiesGender and Sexuality Studies
  • Critical Migration and Border Studies

PROJECTS AND EVENTS

  • Solidarities Dispatch 
  • CaRe Capacious Relations Working Group 
  • DataMig COST Action
  • Digital Demonization: LGBT Rights and the Struggle for Democracy. In collaboration with Dr. Billy Holzberg, King’s College London. Funded by TransCampus Initiative of TU Dresden and King’s College.
  • School of (Un)thought. In collaboration with Nelly Y. Pinkrah. Funded by Diversity and Inclusion Anreiz Fonds, TU Dresden.
  • International workshop, “Feminist and decolonial epistemologies in the study of technology and migration,” as part of the COST Action DataMig, LSE, London, Sept. 2025 (with Mirjam Twigt & Philipp Seuferling).
  • Leakage: Inaugural Conference of Stsing 2024. TU Dresden, March 19-22 2024.
  • When was the Smart Border? International Conference, TU Dresden in collaboration with Philipp Seuferling, London School of Economics Department of Media and Communications, Nov 15-17 2023. 
  • “Listening in, Sounding out: Resonances of Future Pasts,” international workshop, part of the festival for contemporary music at Hellerau: European Centre for the Arts. May 6-7 2023 (with Nelly Y. Pinkrah). 
  • “Sexuality and Borders,” symposium, department of Media, Culture, and Communication, New York University, April 4-5 2019
  • “Feelings of Empire: Affect, Biopower, and Racialization.” Conference. With Prof. Joseph Masco, Prof. Cristina Beltrán, Prof. Jasbir Puar, department of Social and Cultural Analysis, New York University. May 6 2016.

PUBLICATIONS

  • Books 
  • The Sonic Border Regime: Race, Voice, and Technology in Digital Borderlands (under contract at Duke
    University Press), estimated publication in 2027.
  • Resisting datafication of the border: A collaborative critique. In preparation for Meson Press. (with Nina Amelung, Martin Bak Jørgensen, Katharina Wuropulos & Kinan Alajak), in preparation
  • The Sexual Politics of Border Control. Eds. Billy Holzberg, Anouk Madörin, Michelle Pfeifer. London: Routledge, 2022. 
  • Peer-reviewed Articles
  • 2026                “Infrastructural Opportunism’s governmental desires: database interoperability’s lessons from the German central register of foreigners,” Cultural Studies.
  • 2026                “When was the ‘smart border’? Towards an agenda for historicizing the technopolitics of migration and border control,” Cultural Studies (with Philipp Seuferling). 
  • 2024                “Flattening the map: How human movement is turned into a logistical problem, the cases of asylum and humanitarian relief.” Navigationen 24.2 (with Patricia Ward).
  • 2023               “’The Native Ear:’ Accented Testimonial Desire and Asylum” Thinking with an Accent: Toward a New Object, Method, and Practice. Eds. Pooja Rangan, Ragini Tharoor Srinivasan, Akshya Saxena & Pavitra Sundar. Oakland: University of California Press. 192-207.
  • 2021                “Intelligent Borders? Securitizing Smartphones in the European Border Regime.”                                  Culture Machine Vol. 20. 
  • 2018                “Becoming Flesh: Refugee Hunger Strike and Embodiments of Refusal in German                                 Necropolitical Spaces.” Citizenship Studies 22.5, 459-474.
  • Introductions
  • 2024                Editorial, “Solidarities.” Against Catastrophe. Issue 4. https://againstcatastrophe.net/
  • 2021                “The Sexual Politics of Border Control: an Introduction.” Ethnic and Racial Studies. 44:9, 1485-1506. Co-authored with Anouk Madörin and Billy Holzberg.
  • Guest-Edited Journal Issues
  • 2026                Special Issue: “When was the ‘Smart Border’?,” Cultural Studies (with Philipp Seuferling).
  • 2023                “Solidarities.” Against Catastrophe. Issue 4. https://againstcatastrophe.net/
  • 2021                “Special Issue: The Sexual Politics of Border Control.” Ethnic and Racial Studies. 44:9 Co-edited with Anouk Madörin and Billy Holzberg.
  • Book Reviews & Short Form 
  • 2026                Book review of The Cybernetic Border: Drones, Technology and Intrusion, Catalyst: Feminism, Theory, Technoscience 12.1.
  • 2024                “The coloniality of ‘smart’ borders,” Gunda-Werner-Institute, Sept 29. 
  • 2024                Smart Borders and their critiques are too focused on the tech: why we need a historical approach to envision different futures, LSE Media Blog (with Philipp Seuferling)
  • 2023                Thinking with “Thinking with an Accent”: A Roundtable Conversation, with Slava                                 Greenberg, Vijay Ramjattan, Pooja Rangan, Ragini Tharoor Srinivasan, and Pavitra Sundar, CaMP Anthropology, November 6, https://shorturl.at/iqE19
  • 2023                “Your Voice is (not) your Passport,” Sounding Out, Racial Bias in Speech AI Series, June 12, https://rb.gy/k0p25. 
  • 2016                “Review of Postkoloniale Theorie: Eine kritische Einführung,” María Do Mar Castro Varela & Nikita Dhawan. Femina Politica Vol. 1. 185-186. 
  • 2015                “Review of Decolonizing Enlightenment: Transnational Justice, Human Rights and Democracy in a Postcolonial World,” ed. Nikita Dhawan. Feministische Studien Vol. 2. 348-350. 

TEACHING (selected)

  • Summer 2026 Race, Grenzen und Technologie, RUB
  • Summer 2026 Medien und Überwachung, RUB
  • Summer 2025 Race, Borders and Digital Technology, TU Dresden
  • 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.
  • Spring 2017    History of Media and Communication (undergraduate), New York University
  • Fall 2016        Introduction to Media, Culture, and Communication (undergraduate), New York University

TALKS AND LECTURES (selected)

  • 2026                Gender, Diversität und Ungleichheit als Medien digitaler Grenz- und Bevölkerungsregime, Universität Rostock, 11. May. 
  • 2025                “Data on the Move: Voice, Algorithms, and Asylum in Europe’s digital borderlands,” Center for Advanced Internet Research, Bochum, 3. Dec. 
  • 2025                Media of Migration, Cultures of Exclusion: Insight from Europe’s digital migration                               regime, Universität Trier, 10. Nov (in German).
  • 2025                “How to Sound Like a Refugee in the Age of Artificial Intelligence,” Centre for Media, Communication and Information Research University Bremen, 8. Apr.
  • 2025                “Race, Voice, and Technology in Digital Borderlands,” Sarah Lawrence College, New York, 13. Feb.
  • 2024                “The Sonic Border Regime,” Planetary Design, Reclaiming Futures, ICI Institute for Cultural Inquiry, Berlin, Oct 24. 
  • 2024                “Extraction, Valorization, and Expulsions in the European border regime,” The Institute for Technology in the Public Interest, Brussels, Oct 5.
  • 2024                “Counting Contamination: Race, Population, and the Sexuality of Migration Data,”                                Gender Lectures: (Un)healthy Relationships in the Anthropocene, TU Dresden, July 2.
  • 2023                “Border Sonics: an analysis of the use of media technology, data, and voices in asylum and border regimes,” Department Digital Humanities and Social Studies Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Nov 30 (in German).
  • 2023                “Objectivity, Discretion, and Administrative Power in ‘Smart’ Migration Policing,”Weizenbaum Research Institute for the Networked Society, Workshop Decisions, Choices & Reasoning in AI, Berlin, Germany, July 13. 
  • 2023                “’The Native Ear:’ Accented Testimonial Desire and Asylum” Book Launch of Thinking with an Accent: Toward a New Object, Method, and Practice, April 28, online.
  • 2023                “Listening for a Border: Border Sonics and Racialized Innovations in Digital Migration Policing,” Department of Culture and Media, Eugene Lang College, The New School, March 29.
  • 2022                Panel Discussion, “Smart Borders?” Digitization and Migration Control, Weizenbaum Research Institute for the Networked Society.
  • 2019                “Sonic Borders,” Interrupted Cyfem and Queer symposium, Berlin, Germany, Aug 10. 
  • 2018                “Your Voice is (not) your Passport: Voice Forensics and Asylum,” Transsubstantiating Transmission:
    Walls become Ports become Channels, NYU Berlin, Germany, Oct. 12-13.