Graduate Student

Lauren Martin

M.A. Geography, University of Kentucky
B.A. Philosophy, Grinnell College  

contact:
Miller Hall room 8
Tel.:(859) 257-8237
Fax: (859) 323-1969
email: lauren.martin@uky.edu

Profile

I am a PhD student interested in the spatial practices of surveillance, mobilized to protect U.S. citizens in a "post 9/11 world." Due to the metropolitan location of the attacks and the prolific discourses producing urban fear, responses to terrorism in rural/non-urban places can be overlooked. Drawing on quality assurance, monitoring, and certification literatures, my doctoral work will focus on agricultural industry responses to "agroterrorism" and bioterrorism. What interests me the most about these overlapping discourses is that threats of terrorism and food scares are brought together to promote new notions of "preparedness," "vulnerability," and therefore food monitoring. I hope to examine how discourses of "agroterrorism" has changed the ways in which surveillance practices produce and mitigate fear through the regulation of highly mobile commodities.