Directory

M. R. Sauter

M.R. Sauter is an Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland College of Information. They are the author of The Coming Swarm: DDoS Actions, Hacktivism, and Civil Disobedience on the Internet. Their research focuses on the history and philosophy of technology, with projects on the role of finance in high technology, the North American “innovation economy,” and the philosophy of artificial intelligence. Their second book, Risk Capital: How High Finance Remade High Technology, under contract with University of Chicago Press, uncovers the role of East Coast-based financiers in creating the myth of the “American venture capitalist” and developing the regulatory framework that made the modern venture capital landscape possible.

Their work has been published in The Atlantic, Enterprise and Society, the Journal of Communication, the Case Western Reserve Law Review, Real Life Mag, e-flux, New Media and Society, Ethnography Matters, HiLow Brow, io9, Vice, the National Post, the Globe and Mail, the Los Angeles Times, the American Behavioral Scientist, and the MIT Technology Review, and in collected volumes published by MIT Press and Peter Lang. They have frequently appeared as an expert on technology, culture, and politics on the CBC, NPR, TVO, the BBC, PRI, American Public Media, the Boston Globe, and other international outlets. Their research has been featured by Popular Mechanics, BoingBoing, Slate, Der Spiegel, and the Christian Science Monitor.

They received their PhD from McGill University in 2020, and they hold a masters degree in Comparative Media Studies from MIT. They have held research fellowships at the Berkman-Klein Center for Internet and Society, and New America.

Focus

Understanding the impact of corporate priorities on the security and rights of individuals and communities online and offline.

Current Research Interests

• History of venture capital
• Innovation economy
• Public-private partnerships

Education

PhD, Communications Studies, McGill University (awarded Spring 2020)