Building Robust & Inclusive Democracy

Biography

Samantha Fried is the program manager of the Science, Technology, and Society (STS) program at Tufts. Samantha holds a PhD in STS from Virginia Tech. While in graduate school, she was student body president, and belonged to an interdisciplinary program in Remote Sensing (the measurement of distant materials, typically using satellites or drones). Educated in two different worlds that share little in terms of jargon, theories, or methodologies, she learned to think about the connections between these spaces in terms of shared values. Her dissertation and continuing work examine the development of Earth remote sensing technologies, and how this context has shaped our notions of collective action on environmental data. Her research seeks to reconfigure critical theory, action-based coalition-building, and Earth remote sensing technologies around a commitment to civic science.