Rex Ferguson is Senior Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Birmingham. Melissa M. Littlefield is Professor in the Department of English at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. James Purdon is Lecturer in English Literature at the University of St Andrews.
“While there is now a growing literature on identification, there is no volume, as far as I know, so firmly rooted in literary studies, as compared to historical approaches. The Art of Identification makes a significant, original, and novel contribution to the literature.” —Simon Cole,author of Suspect Identities: A History of Fingerprinting and Criminal Identification “In a world increasingly dominated by technological forms of human surveillance, identification, and profiling, it is ever more important to examine how such processes affect how we feel and understand ourselves and others. The exciting essays in The Art of Identification are a signal contribution to this task. The collection will fascinate humanities scholars, scientists, and AI ethicists alike.” —Edward Higgs,author of Identifying the English: A History of Personal Identification 1500 to the Present “The collection provides thoughtful examinations of the Western surveillance state and how individuals are defined within it, with applications ranging from government to the arts and sciences.” —Sara Collins Biography