Policing Desire: How Digital Surveillance Turns Queer Intimacy into a Crime

Policing Desire: How Digital Surveillance Turns Queer Intimacy into a Crime
Nov. 5 at 5 p.m. in Club Spartan, Room 338 Case Hall, 842 Chestnut Road, East Lansing

Once imagined as digital havens for queer intimacy, apps likeGrindr now function as tools of surveillance — first by intimate others, then by outsiders, and most recently by law enforcement and criminals. This presentation explores how queer bodies are policed and surveilled, a process made efficient through new technologies, as part of the politics of safety in the digital age.

Presented By: Dr. Chris Conner, James Madison College's 2025-26 Stephen O. Murray Scholar in Residence. An assistant professor of sociology at the University of Missouri-Columbia, Conner's research explores criminology, social movements, technology, gender and sexuality, with a focus on how large-scale technological shifts transform human interaction.