Morgan McEarlean

Morgan McErlean (she/her) is a Ph.D. student in Library and Information Science at Rutgers University. She received her Bachelor of Arts from Swarthmore College, where she majored in Computer Science and English Literature and was advised by Sukrit Venkatagiri. McErlean’s research interests revolve around examining the impacts of surveillance on communities, specifically in labor and carceral contexts, and fostering ways to build collective power and resistance against surveillance and, by extension, Big Tech. She approaches her work through the lenses of critical human-computer interaction and science and technology studies, with an interest in framing her work through political economy, abolition, and restorative justice.

McErlean is currently supported by the Lippincott Fellowship, awarded by Swarthmore College, and a Rutgers SC&I Fellowship in the Department of Library and Information Science. As an undergraduate, she received an honorable mention for the Computing Research Association Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Award.

Her current projects include contributions to the Workplace Surveillance Incident Tracker with Sarah Fox and Cella Sum, as well as a historical analysis of contemporary surveillance practices at the intersection of workplace and carceral realities. Broadly, McErlean is interested in examining surveillance in both labor and carceral spaces, searching for ways to build solidarity between these communities and centering shared struggle.

B.A., Computer Science and English Literature, Swarthmore College