About My Research
My interests focus on the space and power of communication infrastructures, with communication broadly conceived as traditional movement of messages as well as of people, goods, services, and data. In the past I have looked specifically at issues of network neutrality, the digital television transition, smart infrastructures, and intersections in communication and mobility.
My MA thesis focused on the subjection of the hacker in popular and news media as well as in government discourse, and hacking as a technology of the self that produces a subject outside of governmental power. I hope in the future to look at discourse surrounding infrastructure hacking, made possible by new "smart" infrastructures and a similar discourse of fear about technology and "the hacker threat".
Reseach Statement - coming soon
keywords
space | mobility | infrastructure | networks | power | technology | communication | transportation | autonomous vehicles | cyberwarfare | informationalization |
favorite books
Television - Williams | Communication as Culture - Carey | How We Became Our Data - Koopman | The Stack - Bratton | Platform Capitalism - Srnicek |Speed and Politics - Virilio | Networks of Power - Hughes | City of Light - Hecht | Culture and Technology, a Primer - Slack & Wise | A Thousand Plateaus - Deleuze & Guattari | Disrupted Cities: When Infrastructure Fails - Ed. Stephen Graham | Mobilities - Urry | The Production of Space - Lefebvre | The Whale and the Reactor - Winner | Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City - Norton | Mobility without Mayhem: Safety, Cars, and Citizenship - Packer | Bunker Archeology - Virilio |
Selected Presentations
Oswald, K. F. (2020, November). Will Things Ever be the Same Again? Imagining the Past in Post-Normal Times. Presented at the 2020 Annual Conference of the National Communication Association, Virtual Convention.
Oswald, K. F. (2017, April). Technological Presence and Freedom from Loss in ‘Be Right Back’ (Series 2, Episode 1). Presented at the 2017 Eastern Communication Association Convention, Boston, MA.
Oswald, K. F. (2016, April). The "Smart" Communication Revolution. Presented at the 2016 Eastern Communication Association Convention, Baltimore, MD.
Oswald, K. F. (2014, September). A Brief history of smart transportation infrastructure. Presented at the 12th Annual Conference of the International Association for the History of Transport, Traffic and Mobility, Philadelphia, PA.