Donny Persaud

Donny is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Science and Technology Studies at Cornell. He is interested in how internet infrastructures construct and reshape understandings of place, nature, and the environment. His dissertation research explores emerging issues associated with low-earth-orbit satellite internet infrastructure, examining how stakeholders including telecom operators, astronomers, legal bodies, and activists mobilize overlapping and conflicting visions of nature to argue for varying levels of environmental protection for outer space. Originally From Toronto, Canada, Donny earned a Hon B.Sc in Physical and Environmental Geography from the University of Toronto and a MA in Geography from Memorial University of Newfoundland, where he wrote his thesis on the implementation of rural transportation infrastructure in the remote island communities of Fogo Island and Change Islands. He works with Phoebe Sengers (chair), Sara Pritchard, and Jenny Goldstein. Donny holds a Doctoral Fellowship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.