Lauren Sutherland's work explores changing and contested terrains and modes of governance in relation to projects of development and security, global processes of capital accumulation, and war. She is currently in the late stages of dissertation fieldwork, in a metro-region of the U.S.-Mexico borderlands that sits at the convergence of multiple sovereignties and jurisdictions, and is preponderantly oriented around large-scale commercial agriculture and military training and testing.

Prior to beginning her PhD, Lauren spent years working as an investigative reporter and researcher on journalism projects concerned with national security, war, and climate change.