Alix Johnson

Alix Johnson is a cultural anthropologist whose research examines technological infrastructures (like data centers, fiber-optic cables, and sonar surveillance networks) as a lens on questions of sovereignty, emerging spatial politics, and enduring formations of imperial power – especially in Iceland and the broader Arctic. Her book, Where Cloud is Ground: Placing Data and Making Place in Iceland, was published in 2023 as part of the Atelier Series at the University of California Press and won the 2025 Best First Book Award from the Society for Cinema and Media Studies. Her research has also appeared in American Anthropologist, American Ethnologist, Surveillance & Society, City & Society, Culture Machine, and the Journal of Environmental Media, where she currently serves as Associate Editor.

Ph.D. Cultural Anthropology, University of California, Santa Cruz, 2018
M.A. Cultural Anthropology, University of California, Santa Cruz, 2013
B.A. Linguistics and French, University of California, Berkeley, 2009