I am an associate professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Washington. I research the geopolitics of frontiers, namely the Arctic and orbital space, and critique the politics, ethics, and epistemologies of remote sensing.
Currently, with the support of a Mellon Foundation New Directions Fellowship, I am retraining in space law and astronomy and plan to carry out fieldwork examining the impacts of Starlink satellite internet on remote Arctic communities. Relatedly, I’m interested in how the development of commercial spaceports and ground stations is affecting places like Kodiak, Alaska and Svalbard, Norway.
With colleagues, I’m working to advance the subfield of critical remote sensing. We advocate for: 1) using satellite imagery to expose social and environmental justice; 2) engaging groups typically left outside remote sensing’s community of practice; and 3) empowering new users with the tools to do remote sensing themselves – and reimagine the technology, too. I’m also interested in expanding the notion of remote sensing beyond machine instruments to consider, for instance, Indigenous and traditional observing methods.
My research has been supported by generous grants from the British Academy, Fulbright Association, Regional Studies Association, and National Science Foundation. I also collaborate with the InfraNorth project at the University of Vienna. I have been a visiting researcher at institutions including the Univesity of Cambridge, UiT The Arctic University of Norway in Tromsø, and the University of Heidelberg’s Centre for Apocalyptic and Post-Apocalyptic Studies. Previously, I taught in the Department of Geography and School of Modern Languages & Cultures (China Studies Programme) at the University of Hong Kong.
I received a PhD in Geography from UCLA, where I was a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow. For my dissertation, I carried out fieldwork on bridges both real and imagined in the Russian Far East, on a new highway to the Arctic Ocean in Canada’s Northwest Territories, atop the melting Greenland Ice Sheet, and inside air-conditioned offices in Singapore. I obtained an MPhil in Polar Studies from the University of Cambridge’s Scott Polar Research Institute with the support of a Gates Scholarship.
My book with Klaus Dodds, Unfrozen: The Fight for the Future of the Arctic was published in 2025 by Yale University Press. My academic publications are listed in Google Scholar and available to read on academia.edu and ResearchGate. I share square-sized photographs on Instagram and post videos of unimpressive skiing in impressive surroundings on YouTube.
Email me at miabenn at uw dot edu or send a message using the form below, and I’ll do my best to respond to you in English, Russian, French, or Swedish.
