Project title: "Orbital Data Centers as Fringe Technologies: On Structural Violence and Modern Technology"
Project description: "My project asks how modern technology mediates structural violence in the contemporary United States through a case study of orbital data centers, which are data centers in outer space. An emerging or "fringe" technology, orbital data centers (ODCs) inhabit the edges of public awareness, where they are positioned by their proponents as the ultimate means of resolving tension between the juxtaposed values of technological progress and community well-being. However, by analyzing the contemporary history of ODC development through a Black Studies and Science and Technology Studies framework, I contend that the advancement of fringe technologies like ODCs does not alleviate harm. On the contrary, it depends on exacerbating while disavowing ongoing histories of community extraction and displacement. Accordingly, I conclude with a preliminary discussion of how community organizers may more effectively attend to violence mediated through "fringe" technologies in the language of disavowal."
Most important achievements: I do not believe that anything I have done or will ever do is distinguishably or particularly important. What I accomplish is not particularly important to me. Rather, it is who and what guides me that I care most about.
Reflections on the College Scholar Program: Interdisciplinary research makes it invaluable.