Draft:Petra Molnar

Petra Molnar is a lawyer and anthropologist specializing in migration, technology, and human rights. Molnar has worked all over the world including Jordan, Turkey, the Philippines, Kenya, Colombia, Canada, Palestine, and various parts of Europe.

Molnar is the Associate Director of the Refugee Law Lab at York University and is a faculty associate at Harvard's Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society. She runs the Migration and Technology Monitor project.

Early life
A former classical musician, Molnar has been working in migrant justice since 2008, first as a community worker, and now as a researcher and lawyer. Molnar obtained a Master of Arts in Social Anthropology from York University, a Juris Doctorate from the University of Toronto, and an LL.M Specializing in International Law from the University of Cambridge. She is a member of good standing of the Law Society of Ontario as a barrister and solicitor.

Career
Molnar is the author of numerous academic and popular press publications and one of the first and leading international voices on technology and migration.

Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Guardian, Al Jazeera ,Time Magazine, Jacobin, The Transnational Institute,  and Just Security,  as well as local outlets like The Toronto Star,  the Globe and Mail, Euractiv,  The Border Chronicle,  and The Conversation,  among others. Molnar advises various national and international bodies, co-authoring reports such as for the Office of the Human Rights Commissioner (OHCHR) at the United Nations.

The Walls Have Eyes
Molnar's first book, The Walls Have Eyes: Surviving Migration in the Age of Artificial Intelligence chronicles her 6 year long work researching the impacts of border surveillance on refugees and displaced persons. It was published with the New Press in May 2024, with Publisher's Weekly review calling it a "grave wake-up call" and listing it as one of their anticipated Spring 2024 books.

Recognition
Molnar was profiled as a leader in the Globe and Mail's "Stepping Up" Series in 2018.

Selected Publications

 * Molnar, Petra (2024-21-05). The Walls Have Eyes: Surviving Migration in the Age of Artificial Intelligence. The New Press.
 * Molnar, Petra (2023-11). "Nothing about us without us:" participatory methods and surveillance storytelling. Interventions on public geographies. Part of ISSN: 0962-6298
 * Molnar, Petra (2022). Territorial and Digital Borders and Migrant Vulnerability Under a Pandemic Crisis. IMISCOE Research Series. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-81210-2_3
 * Molnar, Petra (2021) Robots and refugees: The human rights impacts of artificial intelligence and automated decision-making in migration. Research Handbook on International Migration and Digital Technology. ISBN: 978-183910061-1;978-183910060-4
 * Molnar, Petra (2020). AI and Migration Management. The Oxford Handbook of Ethics of AI. DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190067397.013.49
 * Molnar, Petra (2019). Technology on the margins: AI and global migration management from a human rights perspective. Cambridge International Law Journal. DOI: 10.4337/cilj.2019.02.07