Rob Kitchin has been awarded an ERC Advanced Investigator award for a project entitled ‘The Programmable City’.   The project is essentially an empirical extension of the Code/Space book (MIT Press, 2011), focusing on the intersection of smart urbanism, ubiquitous computing and big data from a software studies/critical geography perspective, comparing Dublin and Boston and other locales.

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Applications for a Post-doctoral Fellowship are sought within a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC)-funded project on The New Transparency at Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada.

Application deadline: 22nd of February.

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The University of Essex (UK) has the following two jobs advertised.

Lecturer in Criminology
Lecturer in Sociology

Additional information can be obtained through Dr. Pete Fussey, if people especially from the SSN community are interested.

Applications for a Post-doctoral Fellowship are sought within a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC)-funded project on The New Transparency at Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada.

This is a seven-year Major Collaborative Research Initiative (MCRI) project (2008-2015). The successful applicant will be working with The New Transparency research team to develop online content related to the major project Transparent Lives: Surveillance in Canada. This project is a current assessment of surveillance investigating the major forms of monitoring, tracking, tracing, recording and processing of personal data in the full range of organizations, both governmental and commercial, in the Canadian context.

One Post-doctoral Fellowship ($36,000 CAD + benefits) is available for one year, starting date as soon as possible.

Applicants must have demonstrated and practical experience with website content development and an demonstrable interest in surveillance studies. Experience with content management systems (e.g. Drupal) and/or graphic design, bilingualism (French and English), and statistical analysis would be an asset.

Applicants should have a PhD in the social sciences. Opportunities will be given to pursue some original research and some teaching responsibilities may be available to suitably qualified candidates.

Please send by 26 October 2012 a curriculum vitae, transcripts, a sample publication or work-in-progress, two letters of reference and a letter of application to

Ms Joan Sharpe
Project Administrator
Surveillance Studies Centre, c/o Department of Sociology
Queen’s University
Kingston
Ontario
Canada K7L 3N6

A fully funded full time PhD studentship in surveillance studies is available at the Open University Business School:

The closing date for applications is the 3rd September 2012 with interviews on the 26th September, and the start date is 1st January 2013.

The studentship is jointly funded by the OU and the New Transparency Major Collaborative Research Initiative, based at the Surveillance Studies Centre in Queens University, Canada. The student will be based at the Open University in Milton Keynes, UK.

Full details of the studentship, including how to apply, are in the URL above: topics may be proposed which relate to public/private blurring in the surveillance society; the political economy of surveillance and the surveillance-industrial complex; employee or consumer surveillance; issues connected with new surveillance practices (such as big data); historical, theoretical or empirical work will also be considered.

Interdisciplinary applications are encouraged so a disciplinary background in business studies is desirable but not essential.

September 2012 to April 2013

— 10 Month Contract, with the possibility of renewal up to an additional 12 months
— Number of hours and number of work weeks are flexible depending on the candidate’s preference and schedule (max 10 hours per week, max 320 hours total)

Closing Date: July 31, 2012 at noon. Candidates invited for an interview will be notified on August 10, 2012. Interviews will be held on August 23, 2012.

Salary: $28.00 per hour (max 10 hours per week, max 320 hours total)
Work schedule is flexible depending on the candidate’s preference and other commitments.

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The Department of Sociological Studies at the University of Sheffield is pleased to advertise for the following posts:

Part-Time (40%) Research Assistant RESPECT Project
Job Reference Number: UOS004272

The project will evaluate social, economic and privacy costs of growth of surveillance technologies, measure citizens attitudes towards surveillance, and develop tools so that policy makers and those deploying systems can do so in ways that most respect privacy and citizens rights.

The work will be carried out by a consortium of 19 European Partners, led by Professor Joseph Cannataci (University of Malta and University of Groningen). The Principal Investigator at the University of Sheffield is Professor Clive Norris.

See here for further details.

Call for applications

Post Doctoral Fellowship in Surveillance Studies at The University of Toronto, Faculty of Information

The New Transparency: Surveillance and Social Sorting research project seeks to fill one post-doctoral fellow position (two years in residence), starting September 2012 based in the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto.

The fellow will be supervised by Professor Andrew Clement. The fellow will be expected to work on her/his own surveillance-related research and will also be involved in several collaborative research initiatives pertaining to surveillance. This will include working on a report on ‘Surveillance in Canada’, supervising graduate student interns at advocacy organizations, and taking a lead role in organizing an international workshop on the politics of surveillance planned for May 2014, S/he will also be involved in writing grants and generally contributing to the New Transparency and related projects.

The successful applicant will have the opportunity to work with a number of scholars and students associated with the New Transparency project at Queens University, the University of Victoria, the University of Alberta and the Open University in the UK, as well as those at the University of Toronto affiliated with the Information Policy Research Program (IPRP). In addition, the post-doctoral fellow will find a wide range of programs at U of T and other Toronto region universities that provide opportunities for enrichment and collaboration. Applicants can learn more about the New Transparency project and IPRP through our websites: http://www.sscqueens.org/projects/the-new-transparency/about and http://iprp.ischool.utoronto.ca

Applicants from a wide range of disciplines, including information science, STS, media studies, computer science and engineering, law, or traditional humanities and social sciences are encouraged to apply. Applicants should be recent or imminent recipients of the doctoral degree, with demonstrated interest and expertise in critical approaches to surveillance studies, digital media and political action. Areas of specialization and disciplinary approaches are open.

Salary is competitive and includes benefits. Subject to availability of funds, and depending on areas of teaching expertise, the successful applicant may be eligible to obtain a part-time contract teaching position with the Faculty of Information. Modest funds will also be provided for conference travel, equipment and other research expenses. The awardee will be expected to be in residence in Toronto, Canada, for the time of the award and be an active colleague within U of T as well as the New Transparency project.

Application Deadline is April 30, 2012. Please send application materials in electronic form to <mailto:Andrew.Clement@utoronto.ca>Andrew.Clement@utoronto.ca. Applications should include a CV, letter describing suitability for the fellowship, a statement outlining the proposed research project(s), three writing samples and full contact details for three individuals who would be willing to write letters of reference.

Applicants who have not yet earned their degrees must provide a letter from their academic advisor confirming the expectation of degree by start of the fellowship.

Review of applications will continue until the position is filled.

For more information, please contact:

Andrew Clement
Professor, Faculty of Information
Coordinator, Information Policy Research Program
University of Toronto
+1 416-922-0251 (m)
andrew.clement@utoronto.ca
skype: andrewclement2
http://www.ischool.utoronto.ca/faculty/andrew-clement

The New Transparency: Surveillance and Social Sorting research project seeks to fill one post-doctoral fellow position, starting summer 2012 based in the Department of Sociology at the University of Alberta. This is a one-year term position with the possibility of renewal.

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For the academic year 2012-13 (start date 1st October 2012) we are inviting applications for a full-time funded PhD studentship (circa £14,000 per annum) in the field of surveillance. This project is part-funded by The New Transparency Major Collaborative Research Initiative.

The New Transparency MCRI and the Open University Business School has a PhD studentship available for October 2012 on the topic of ‘the Surveillance Industrial Complex’. The studentship will be based at The Open University in Milton Keynes. Applications may address any angle of this wide ranging and interesting topic.  To be eligible for the studentship you will need to have at least an upper second class honours degree and a Masters or equivalent in Business or Social Science Research Methods. Further information on the studentship and our application process can be found here:

http://www8.open.ac.uk/business-school/research/research-degrees/phd-studentships-2012-13/surveillanc

The closing date for applications is 12 noon GMT on 28th March 2012.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions about the studentship.

Thanks

Kirstie