His research focuses on institutional transformations with new technologies, with a particular emphasis on surveillance and security programs. He has published over forty articles or book chapters and five books, including Surveillance in the Time of Insecurity, which won the Surveillance Studies Book Prize of the International Surveillance Studies Network in 2011. Areas of expertise include ethnography, science and technology studies, surveillance studies, critical criminology, urban studies, and contemporary social and cultural theory. Monahan is an Associate Editor of the leading academic journal on surveillance, Surveillance & Society.