Danah Boyd — Data Are Made, Not Found: A Story of Politics, Power, and the Civil Servants Who Saved the US Census - with Albert E. Fontenot Jr
Danah Boyd discusses *Data Are Made, Not Found*, her account of the people and institutions responsible for producing the U.S. Census and the political pressures threatening that work. She will be joined by Albert E. Fontenot Jr., a former senior Census Bureau official, for a conversation about how the 2020 census was planned, conducted, and protected during a period marked by the COVID-19 pandemic, natural disasters, budget constraints, political interference, and attacks on statistical methods.
Boyd’s book draws on insider access to the Census Bureau and interviews with hundreds of civil servants. It examines the census as a vast operation involving years of preparation, hundreds of thousands of temporary workers, and the careful effort to count every resident once and in the correct place. The discussion will also consider how census data shape political representation and federal funding, how earlier political decisions weakened the administrative infrastructure, and why protecting the civil servants and institutions that produce data is essential to democracy.
When: Friday, September 25, 2026, at 7:00 p.m.
Venue: Politics and Prose at The Wharf, 610 Water Street SW, Washington, DC 20024.
Format: Danah Boyd will appear in conversation with Albert E. Fontenot Jr.
Featured speakers: Danah Boyd is the Geri Gay Professor of Communication at Cornell University, founder of Data & Society, and author of *It’s Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens*. Albert E. Fontenot Jr. is the former Executive Senior Advisor for the Decennial Census Program at the U.S. Census Bureau and previously served as associate director for Decennial Census Programs.
Tickets: Free.
Seating: Seating is first come, first served.
Accessibility: To request accommodations or ask about accessibility, email events@politics-prose.com, ideally at least one week before the event. Requests made closer to the event will be accommodated when possible.
Run time: Not specified.
Ages: Not specified.
Related book: *Data Are Made, Not Found: A Story of Politics, Power, and the Civil Servants Who Saved the US Census* is available for preorder in hardcover for $30.00, with a publication date of September 24, 2026.