Please join us for a UW Data Science Seminar featuring UW Geography Associate Professor Mia Bennett on Thursday, March 6th from 4:30 to 5:20 p.m. PT.

The seminar will be held in Hitchcock Hall 132 – Campus Map.

“Pixel Politics: Advancing Critical Remote Sensing”

Abstract: While critical GIS is a widely researched subfield within geography, critical remote sensing has received less attention. As remotely sensed imagery and the “view from above” become more prevalent in everything from daily life to newspaper reporting, agriculture, and war, research is needed into the political and technological contexts in which satellites and satellite data are embedded. Unlike maps, which any individual can produce, generating satellite Earth observation imagery requires engineering expensive satellites and launching them into orbit. As a result, national governments have traditionally dominated the sector, though private companies are now challenging their monopoly. While the emerging military-digital complex maintains a hold on the production of satellite data, its analysis is increasingly open to any individual with access to a computer or mobile phone. The growing accessibility of satellite data may engender new and more critical approaches within remote sensing, with links to open source intelligence and investigative journalism. In this talk, I will consider the politics and ethics of satellite imagery in the New Space era and sketch out the three building blocks of critical remote sensing: exposure, engagement, and empowerment.

Biography: Mia Bennett is an associate professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Washington. Her research focuses on the development of infrastructure in remote frontiers, namely the Arctic and orbital space. Alongside this topic, she has been working with colleagues to develop the subfield of critical remote sensing. Previously, she worked at the University of Hong Kong..

The 2024-2025 seminars will be held in person, and are free and open to the public.