Matthew Abbey

Profile

Matthew Abbey is a social and political theorist whose work examines how state violence, dispossession, and bordering practises are navigated, resisted, and critiqued. His research to date has focused on the sexual politics of borders, the colonial present, surveillance, the ethics of technological governance, and the social function of fantasy. He has published or has forthcoming articles in Social Text, Surveillance & Society, Sexualities, The European Journal of Cultural Studies, Identities, Contention, Visual Studies, and Porn Studies. His media writing has also appeared in The Guardian, Foreign Policy, openDemocracy, Le Monde Diplomatique, and The Diplomat. He completed his formal education with a PhD from the University of Warwick, an MA from Sciences Po Paris, and a BA from Monash University. Before working in academia, he gained experience with organisations such as the United Nations Development Programme, Human Rights Watch, the Global Public Policy Institute, and the Human Rights Ombudsman of Armenia.

Matthew is currently a postdoctoral researcher in social theory in the School of Law at Queen Mary, University of London. He works on the UKRI-funded project “What does artificial intelligence mean for the future of democratic society? Examining the social impact of AI and whether human rights can respond”, awarded to Dr Daragh Murray.

Research

Publications

• 2025 (accepted for publication). “Estimating the Future of Migration: Race, Climate Change, and the Militarization of Border Control”, Social Text.
• 2025 (accepted for publication). “The Void of Surveillance: Machine Learning, Psychoanalysis, and the Misreading of Desire”, Surveillance & Society.
• “Queer Migration and the Performance of Crime and Illegality”, Contention 11(1): 1-23.
• “Truths, Fakes, and the Deserving Queer Migrant”, Sexualities 27(1-2): 171-187.
• “Queer Performance on the Border: Making Critical Fun of European Immigration Regimes”, European Journal of Cultural Studies 25(4) 957-972.
• “Beyond Intelligibility: The Hauntings of Queer Migration”, Identities 30(2): 198-216.
• “Performing for the Camera: Queer Migration, Sex Work, and Objecthood”, Visual Studies 37(4): 284-295.
• “‘Refugees Welcome’, Including in (Gay) Porn: Violence Under the Mask of Liberation,” Porn Studies 8(3): 314-33.

Public Engagement

• 2019. “EU Migration Policies in the Central Mediterranean and Libya”, Communication to the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Pursuant to the Article 15 of the Rome Statute (with Omer Shatz et al.).
• 2018. “Counterfeiters Will Win the Trade War”, Foreign Policy, August 10.
• 2018. “How Australia Should Respond To China’s Growing Role In The Pacific”, South China Morning Post, January 18.
• 2017. “Marriage Equality Is Important, But Let's Not Forget Homeless LGBTI Youth”, The Guardian, November 23.
• 2017. “Thai-Burmese Border: Refugees In Need”, Le Monde Diplomatique, June 6.
• 2017. “The EU Must Keep Up With New Technologies”, openDemocracy, March 20.
• 2017. “Russia Finds Ready Friends In A Southeast Asia Battling Terrorism”, South China Morning Post, August 11. 
• 2017. “Vladimir Putin, Rodrigo Duterte and The 'War On Terror'”, Sydney Morning Herald, January 17.