Full Professor of Sociology at the Institute for Social Sciences, University of Minho. Her current research critically engages Social Studies of Science and Technology, ethics, and criminological perspectives to explore the challenges emerging from the uses of genetics in contemporary modes of governance of criminality. She has written extensively about societal and ethical implications of criminal DNA databases, media discourses about DNA technologies, and public views on these topics. Helena’s current research has a focus on the transnational genetic surveillance of criminalized populations through police and judiciary cooperation in the EU.

Rafaela Granja’s current research explores the controversies associated with scientific and technological innovations in the forensic field. Her current research explores technologies such as familial searching and forensic DNA phenotyping. Issues such as the ‘geneticisation’ of social bonds, the materialization of criminal bodies, and the exacerbation of social inequalities are her main focus. Furthermore, she also critically explores the transnational exchange of DNA data in European Union.

Nina Amelung’s current research investigates the democratic challenges of cross-border biometric data-exchange. Her interest lies in public controversies and public involvement related to forensic DNA technologies across the European Union. In particular, she focuses on how controversies evolve and are shaped in different countries. Furthermore, she explores the making of ‘silenced publics’ in European crime and border control regimes which use DNA or fingerprint data.

Sheila Khan is a sociologist who has published on colonial and postcolonial political, historical and social narratives between Portugal and Mozambique from an interdisciplinary approach. Her current research focus is inspired by the following motifs: to understand how the transnational sharing of DNA data and forensic genetic technologies may interfere with the social and political construction of citizenship, democracy and security regarding the presence of the Other as the post-colonial immigrant and as the illegal immigrant; and to critically explore if collective memory of former colonial countries (The Netherlands, United Kingdom and Portugal) may influence the debates on civic consciousness and human rights with regard to the use of DNA data for social control and surveillance.

Filipa Queirós is a junior researcher at the Communication and Society Research Centre (CECS), University of Minho, and PhD student in Sociology at the University of Coimbra. Her work explores the controversies and conceptions of the body emerging from forensic DNA phenotyping technologies (FDP). In addition, she focuses on FDP’s technic developments and its wider impacts in the particular field of the criminal investigation.

Marta Martins is a junior researcher at the Communication and Society Research Centre (CECS) at the University of Minho. Her PhD research focuses on the media narratives about the application of DNA technologies in transnational criminal cases. She explores the circulation of such media narratives in the community of forensic experts and other professionals dealing with crime control activities.

Sara Matos is a junior researcher at the Communication and Society Research Centre (CECS), University of Minho. Her PhD research explores the topics of data protection issues related to criminal genetic databases in the context of transnational police and judiciary cooperation for fighting crime in the EU. Her work also focuses on views about privacy and data protection challenges from the part of different stakeholders in two national contexts – Portugal and the United Kingdom.

Laura Neiva is a junior researcher at the Communication and Society Research Centre (CECS), University of Minho. She holds a degree in Criminology (Faculty of Law of the University of Porto), and a Master degree in Crime, Difference and Inequality (Department of Sociology, University of Minho). Her research explores the expectations towards Big Data applied to transnational policing and criminal investigation. She explores in particular the views about Big Data from the point of view of different stakeholders, and the media narratives. Laura’s work aims to understand how expectations about Big Data might impact on the criminal justice, police and law enforcement.