Zehra Hashmi researches identification technologies in South Asia and their intersection with surveillance, kinship and governance. Her current book project is a historical ethnography of Pakistan’s national identity database. It follows how this information system uses data as a kin-making substance to redefine who counts as kin, and ultimately, a citizen. Her work brings an anthro-historical understanding to bear on debates concerning a central feature of life today: digital identification. She is a postdoc at the The Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University, and will be starting as an Assistant Professor in the Department of History and Sociology of Science at the University of Pennsylvania in July. Zehra holds a PhD in Anthropology and History from the University of Michigan.