About Me
I am a digital, urban, and political geographer. My work examines how processes of digitalization are materialized, territorialized, experienced, and potentially contested in cities. I aim to critique dominant processes of digitalization—in particular those based on surveillance, extraction, and corporate control—while also exploring alternative approaches oriented around social and economic justice and sustainability. My work is primarily ethnographic and interpretive and explores themes such as:
- Critical and feminist perspectives on urban AI and robotics
- Commons-based and cooperative models of digitalization in urban life
- Theories and practices of urban democracy and digitalization
- Emerging technologies (AI, robotics, blockchain, etc.) in imaginaries of urban futures
Prior to joining the University of Twente I was an Assistant Professor of Geography at the University of Nevada, Reno (2019-2022) and a visiting scholar at Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, Spain (2017-2019). I received a BA in International Development Studies and Contemporary Studies from the University of King’s College and Dalhousie University in Canada and a MA and PhD in Geography from the University of Arizona in the United States. My work has received funding from the US National Science Foundation, Social Science Research Council, Wenner-Gren Foundation, and a Fulbright Fellowship, and has been published in journals like Annals of the American Association of Geographers, Antipode, Environment and Planning D, Urban Geography, Regional Studies, and others.
Expertise
Organisations
Research
Past research projects have examined the work of community technology collectives in Barcelona and the process of developing and deploying a social robot tour-guide in a museum, both described below.
Community Technology: In a project supported by a Fulbright Fellowship, the Wenner-Gren Foundation, and the Social Science Research Council, I conducted ethnographic research with community technology collectives in Barcelona loosely organized around calls for “technological sovereignty.” This work traces how an emerging network of cooperatives, community organizations, and activists utilize open-source technologies to build alternative local economies. I reflect on the practices of local residents as they manage common digital infrastructures, experiment with alternative forms of work and property, and re-imagine themselves as digital subjects.
Social Robotics and the Spaces of Everyday Life: Prior to joining the University of Twente, I was the PI on a National Science Foundation (US) funded project titled “Social Robots and the Production of Space: Exploring the Socio-Spatial Dimensions of Human-Robot Interaction.” This is a broad interdisciplinary collaboration involving a roboticist, a digital artist, the curators of two museums, and several postgraduate and undergraduate students. The project interrogates the processes and logics of social robotic development, as well as the politics and ethics of employing such technologies in specific social spaces. The project employs ethnographic research to study the development and deployment of a robot tour-guide equipped with a socially aware navigation system to be used in two museums in Reno, Nevada, USA.Publications
Forthcoming Publications
Del Casino, Vincent, and Casey R. Lynch (Accepted, forthcoming) Robots, Robotic Technologies, and Labor Geographies. Handbook of Labor Geography (Edward Elgar Publishing, ed. Andrew Herod).
Lynch, Casey R., & Kerri Jean Ormerod. (accepted, forthcoming). Science. The Wilely-Blackwell Companion to Social and Cultural Geography. (eds. Jamie Winders and Ishan Ashutosh).
UT Research Information System
Google Scholar Link
Education
I contribute to several undergraduate programs teaching on themes related to the social, political, and ethical dimensions of digitalization. I also supervise student theses in the MSc programme in Philosophy of Science, Technology, and Society.
Prior to joining UT, I taught in several undergraduate and postgraduate programs at the University of Nevada Reno, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, University of California Education Abroad Program, and University of Arizona. These include courses on urban geography, geographic thought, nationalism, Mediterranean cultural studies, and sustainable development, among other topics. I also have extensive experience in experiential and field-based education, primarily as an international field instructor leading courses for high school students in Costa Rica, Panama, and Ecuador.
Affiliated Study Programmes
Bachelor
Master
Courses Academic Year 2023/2024
Courses Academic Year 2022/2023
Contact Details
Visiting Address
University of Twente
Faculty of Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Ravelijn
(building no. 10), room 5240
Hallenweg 17
7522NH Enschede
The Netherlands
Mailing Address
University of Twente
Faculty of Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Ravelijn
5240
P.O. Box 217
7500 AE Enschede
The Netherlands