Carnegie Mellon University
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Benjamin Williams

Benjamin Williams

Ph.D. Student

Address
5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213

Area of Study

PhD in Literary and Cultural Studies

Bio

My research focuses on 20th and 21st century media, visual culture, and literature in the Americas with attention to conceptions of race, mobility, and the law. My dissertation, “Mediating Documentation: Race, Affective Governance, and the US/Mexico Border,” traces documentary media’s representations of migration and surveillance cultures in
the borderlands. I analyze documentary forms such as film, photography, and television series that self-reflexively bolster or call into question state processes of documentation.

Research Keywords: Media, Critical Border Studies, Migration, Visual Culture

Education

  • B.A. in Philosophy, University of Texas at El Paso
  • M.A. in English and American Literature, University of Texas at El Paso

Publications