Fran Meissner’s main research interest is focused on contemporary urban social configurations and how these are transformed through datafication and urban technologies. Her research focus builds on complexity and network analytic approaches and a research passion for making sense of urban diversities and transformations – those brought about by international migration and by data technology driven stratifications, as well as their interplay. She is an Assistant Professor in Critical Geodata Studies and Geodata Ethics at the University of Twente. Before starting at Twente Fran was an Assistant Professor of Urban Studies at the University of Leiden. She has previously held a highly competetive Marie Skłodowska Curie Fellowship at the TU Delft. Fran is a long term research partner at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, where she completed her PhD work as a Doctoral Research Fellow.

Fran has previously been a Junior Research Group Leader at the University of Kassel and a Research Associate at the School of Oriental and African Studies in the Migration and Diaspora Studies Centre. She started her post-doctoral career as a Max Weber Fellow at the prestigious European University Institute in Florence, Italy.

Fran has published multiple books, book chapters and peer-reviewed articles. Her work is driven by the desire to have a positive impact – by way of her research and teaching she aims to foster a more reflexive geoscience and in her service work she aims to make University work more equitable and less toxic. 

I am open to supervising BSc, MSc or PhD Thesis topics that broardly align with critical geotechnology studies and critical earth observation. 

Expertise

  • Earth and Planetary Sciences

    • Research
    • Migration
    • Metropolitan Area
    • Book
    • Investigation
  • Computer Science

    • Complexity
    • Contexts
    • Interdisciplinary

Organisations

Publications

2025

Do no harm: Ethics for Drone Data Projects (2025)[Other contribution › Other contribution]. Zenodo. Meissner, F., Nagenborg, M. H., Masinde, B. K. & Alunge NNangsope, R. A.https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15051569Techno-material entanglements and the social organisation of difference (2025)Ethnic and racial studies, 1-17 (E-pub ahead of print/First online). Heil, T., Meissner, F. & Vertovec, N.https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2025.2469694Urban digital infrastructuring and the (re)production of privilege (2025)In Inclusive Cities and Global Urban Transformation: Infrastructures, Intersectionalities, and Sustainable Development (pp. 19-29). Springer. The UDI Writers Collective, Bustamante Duarte, A. M., Hoefsloot, F. I., Martinez, J., Meissner, F., Pfeffer, K., Indorewala, H., Nurman, A., Rajagopal, C., Sáenz, L. H. & Turel , T.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-97-7521-7_2

2024

Migration statistics in times of large-scale mobility data: ethical concerns and concerns with ethics (2024)In Handbook of research methods in migration (pp. 280-295). Edward Elgar. Taylor, L. & Meissner, F.https://doi.org/10.4337/9781800378032.00031Data-intensive technology systems for women safety: Lessons from Bengaluru’s AI-powered CCTV network (2024)[Contribution to conference › Abstract] 5th International Data Power Conference 2024. Boro, U., Meissner, F. & Pfeffer, K.From urban surveillance to urban care: Care-full justice in the age of AI (2024)[Contribution to conference › Abstract] 5th International Data Power Conference 2024. Boro, U., Meissner, F. & Pfeffer, K.AI and urban governance: from the perils of smart cities to Amazon Inc. urbanism (2024)In Handbook on Public Policy and Artificial Intelligence (pp. 423-434). Edward Elgar. Antenucci, I. & Meissner, F.https://doi.org/10.4337/9781803922171.00040Safety and the techno-mediated city: Lessons from Bengaluru’s AI-powered CCTV network (2024)[Contribution to conference › Abstract] AI Experiences and Public Safety Symposium 2024. Boro, U., Meissner, F. & Pfeffer, K.Migration information infrastructures: power, control and responsibility at a new frontier of migration research (2024)Journal of ethnic and migration studies, 50(9), 2227-2246. Meissner, F. & Taylor, L.https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2024.2307772Gaming Model Ensembles: Digital urban twins and the ethics of rendering (2024)[Contribution to conference › Abstract] Joint meeting of the European Association for the Study of Science and Technology (EASST) and the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S), EASST-4S 2024. Meissner, F., Chee, F. & Nagenborg, M. H.

Research profiles

Courses academic year 2025/2026

Courses in the current academic year are added at the moment they are finalised in the Osiris system. Therefore it is possible that the list is not yet complete for the whole academic year.

Courses academic year 2024/2025

Courses academic year 2023/2024

Address

University of Twente

Langezijds (building no. 19), room 1305
Hallenweg 8
7522 NH Enschede
Netherlands

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