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Dr Sarah Perret

Research Associate

Research interests

  • International relations
  • Politics
  • Policy
  • Security

Biography

Dr Sarah Perret is Research Associate at the Department of War Studies, working on the transformation of knowledge within International Politics, with a focus on security policy-making, and the use of digital technologies in the practices of border management professionals. Since joining King’s College, she has been contributing to the European Research Council Project led by Professor Claudia Aradau: ‘SECURITY FLOWS: Enacting border security in the digital age: Political lives of data forms, flows and frictions’, which examines the epistemic, practical, political and ethical implications of the datafication of border security. Sarah Perret contributes to Security flows project by carrying out theoretical, methodological and empirical research on datafication at the EU’s borders, especially in France, Germany and Greece.

Before joining King’s College, she has conducted postdoctoral research at the ENS in Paris focused on the re-conceptualisation of ‘risk’ and the sharing knowledge on societal security. She has received her PhD in Political science and International relations from University of Paris-Saclay (in November 2015), in which she compared the security implementation (‘securitization’) of legislative changes on naturalisation in Germany, the United States, and France.

Sarah Perret has been a visiting researcher at Georgetown University's BMW Centre for German and European Studies during her doctoral studies, has taught at University of Paris-Saclay, Paris 2 Assas University, Paris 8 Vincennes Saint-Denis University, Georgetown University, Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris, Sciences Po and University of Trento.

She also is ‘chercheuse associée’ at the Ecole Normale Supérieure (Chair in Geopolitics of Risk) and at the LabToP-CRESPPA/CNRS in Paris, and a founded Member of the multidisciplinary network on Terrorism Studies called OCTAV.

In parallel of her academic curriculum, she has been parliamentary advisor at the French ‘Assemblée nationale’ (2010-2013), and consultant at the World Bank on Governance and Public policies in West Africa (2015-2016). She also has been ministerial advisor on equality and social diversity for the former French Minister of National Education, Higher Education and Research (2016-2017).

Research interests

  • Critical security and border studies
  • International political sociology
  • Critical methods in international relations
  • Citizenship and naturalization policies
  • Datafication and digital technologies
  • (Non-)knowledge and governance

Sarah Perret adopts an interdisciplinary approach that lies at the intersection of International Political Sociology, Critical Security studies, Border and Migration studies, and Science and Technology studies (STS), with a focus on security, identity and technology policies.

Her work contributes to 3 main areas:

- The securitization studies on migration and citizenship, by examining in particular the role of national laws in the political construction of the question of risk alongside that of 'threat'.

- Debates on technology and materiality in international security, looking at the actors and devices involved in EU border management.

- The emerging field of ignorance studies, studying the effects of non-knowledge on border datafication processes and the power relations at stake. 

Teaching

MA supervision

Recent publications

Book

Book chapters

  • Perret S. (2021), ‘L’action législative: un outil de gestion du risque terroriste?’ [The legislative act: a tool for managing terrorist risk?], in A. Bencherif & F. Mérand (Ed.), L’analyse du risque politique, Presses Universitaires de Montréal, p. 203-217.
  • Perret S. & Root D. (2019), ‘Citoyenneté/Nationalité’ [Citizenship/Nationality], in A. Macleod & P. Bonditti (Ed.), Relations internaltionales. Théories et Concepts, Québec, Athéna Éditions, 4th Edition.

Research Articles

Policy papers

Media Articles

Further information

See Sarah's research profile

Research

SecurityFlows
Security Flows

Enacting border security in the digital age: political worlds of data forms, flows and frictions

Project status: Ongoing

Research

SecurityFlows
Security Flows

Enacting border security in the digital age: political worlds of data forms, flows and frictions

Project status: Ongoing