Lake Polan studies the production of digital infrastructure as a key site of contestation over the conditions of possibility for a democratic everyday life. Lake’s dissertation, When Privacy Goes Private, is an ethnographic study of Silicon Valley-based efforts to engineer culturally recognizable forms of privacy into internet technologies. Through the perspectives of software engineers, designers, computer scientists, and entrepreneurs, it analyzes what it means for American understandings of privacy for engineers to join lawyers as agents of its future. The dissertation argues that technological stewardship is transforming privacy’s logic, form, and sensibilities according to the value systems and historical projects of Silicon Valley-style software development, speculative venture capital, and the national security state.

Lake holds a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology from the University of Chicago. As a Teaching Fellow, Lake offers courses in the Department of Anthropology and the Pozen Center for Human Rights.