Torin Monahan, Ph.D.

Torin Monahan is a Professor in the Department of Communication at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and co-Editor-in-Chief of Surveillance & Society, the leading academic journal on surveillance. Prior to joining UNC in 2013, he was an associate professor of Human and Organizational Development at Vanderbilt University (2008-2012) and an assistant professor of Justice and Social Inquiry at Arizona State University (2003-2008).  

 

Monahan is an internationally recognized scholar whose primary area of research is on the social and cultural dimensions of surveillance systems, with a specific focus on racial and gender inequalities. In addition to his work on surveillance and security, he has conducted research and published on digital platforms, technology and culture, urban studies, education and technology, dual-career academics, the clinical trials industry, and research methods. He is currently conducting research on the surveillance capacities of AI systems in higher education.

 

Monahan has published over sixty articles or book chapters and seven books, including Surveillance Studies: A Reader (with David Murakami Wood) and Surveillance in the Time of Insecurity, which won the Surveillance Studies Book Prize of the Surveillance Studies Network. His latest book, Crisis Vision: Race and the Cultural Production of Surveillance (Duke University Press), investigates the racializing effects of contemporary surveillance through the lens of visual and performance art. As a recognized researcher in surveillance studies, Monahan has given expert testimony to the European Commission and has been an invited discussant to the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence. He has also received multiple grants from the U.S. National Science Foundation.

 

He received his PhD in Science and Technology Studies from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.