Dr. Benjamin Muller is Associate Professor with the Departments of Political Science at King’s University College at the University of Western Ontario. His research and publications reflect his interdisciplinary background in international relations theory and contemporary social and political thought, covering issues from contemporary aviation security and trusted traveler programs, to the increasing reliance on biometric technology and risk management in contemporary border security, to a critical security studies analysis of Hizballah. In general, Dr. Muller is interested in the intersection of borders, borderlands, security and identity, as well as topics concerning biometric technology, surveillance studies, politics of risk, critical security studies, and international political sociology. He is currently working on a project called “Ferocious Architecture” on the linkages between the application of surveillance and identification technologies and related trusted traveler programs in border security and the architecture and infrastructure at borders.
Currently, Dr. Muller (together with Dr. Can Mutlu, Acadia University) holds a SSHRC grant on “Designing Border Security” ($65K, 2018-2020). Related to this project, Dr. Muller and Mutlu are editing, Architectures of Security: Design, Control, Space (Rowman & Littlefield, 2019). Dr. Muller is also collaborator on a SSHRC Network Grant “Borders in Globalization,” and under the direction of Dr. Samer Abboud, Villanova University, is working on a project related to International Intervention and local insecurity, funded by the Arab Council on Social Sciences.
Research Interests: International Political Sociology, Surveillance Studies, Critical Security Studies, Borders & Borderlands Studies, and Citizenship & Migration