call: Mentorship program 2023

The Surveillance Studies Network mentorship program is calling for faculty members and PhD students who are interested to participate as mentors and mentees, respectively. One faculty member mentor will be paired with one PhD student mentee whose research concerns surveillance for a one-year period.

The time commitment for faculty is minimal, but the program greatly assists surveillance scholars in developing their scholarship and networking with established scholars in the field.

Over the one-year period, each pair will have a minimum of two discussions via phone or video chat. The focus of the discussions can be determined individually by each pair, but they might cover the mentee’s research or research interests, related literature, the academic job market, or other matters relating to their career. Please note that, as an informal mentorship arrangement, the program is intended only as a supplement and not a replacement to students’ pre-existing supervisor/mentorship relationships.

If you are interested in participating, please email Mentorship Coordinator Oliver Kayas (o.g.kayas@ljmu.ac.uk) with your name, contact information, and up to five keywords of research interests. We will do our best to match faculty members and PhD students who share similar interests.

Note: It is expected that PhD students participating in the program will become SSN members if they are not already.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Best wishes,

Dr Oliver Kayas

Call for Participation (SSN Oregon 2023): Oregon Surveillance Studies Workshop 2023

The Surveillance Studies Network (SSN) and our local hosts and sponsors (the University of Oregon’s School of Journalism and Communication and Oregon State University’s School of Communication) are pleased to invite you to join us in person or online for the upcoming SSN Oregon 2023 conference in Eugene, Oregon, USA. The conference is being held on October 13-14, 2023. The conference will include workshops for works-in-progress papers on a variety of surveillance topics as well as some plenary/keynote roundtable discussions and an exciting social event (more details soon).

We have opportunities for you to participate in person or remotely if you are not able to come to Eugene! We are now seeking expressions of interest for discussants/commenters who will provide prepared comments on each paper at the conference and help lead the sessions. We will have fully remote and in-person sessions (which we hope will also be accessible for remote participants), and would love to have all of you participate as discussants even if you can only attend and do so remotely.

If you are interested and willing to serve as a discussant, we invite you to complete the survey (https://oregon.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_ey9XReTUXJqWyAm) to indicate which papers you might be interested in commenting on during the conference.

More updated details about the conference are at https://blogs.uoregon.edu/ssnoregon2023/.

We look forward to having you join us for the conference in person or remotely as your circumstances permit.

Sincerely,

Bryce Newell and Josh Reeves

SSN Oregon 2023 Co-Chairs

Surveillance Studies Network 2023 Book Award

The Surveillance Studies Network (SSN) invites nominations (including self-nominations) for the annual Surveillance Studies Book Award. The award is given in recognition of an outstanding monograph on surveillance published during the preceding year.

We are currently inviting nominations for 2023 (i.e., books with a ‘2022’ copyright date).

Single or multi-authored works are eligible, but not edited volumes.

The winner will receive an award amount of £100 (to be split among authors if there is more than one), as well as a 1-year membership for the Surveillance Studies Network (SSN), which provides benefits including discounts on all SSN-sponsored conferences and events. The winner/s will be announced in late 2023 / early 2024.

Using the subject heading “SSN Book Award 2023,” please email the committee chair, Jonathan Finn (jfinn@wlu.ca) to nominate a book. Please include the title of the book, year of publication, author, publishing house, and a paragraph of no more than 250 words detailing specifics about why this book would be suitable for the award.

All nominations must be received by 1st September 2023.

Please do not send any books at this stage. The committee will solicit books directly once all nominations have been received.

SSN Book Award Committee Members:

Dr. Jonathan Finn, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Canada

Dr. Özgün Topak, York University, Toronto, Canada

Dr. Fareed Ben-Youssef, Texas Tech University, United States

Dr. Minkyu Sung, UNIST, Korea

A list of previous winners can be found here.

CFP for Workshop: The ‘Surveillant Assemblage’ In the Age of AI

Pre-conference workshop: November 14, 2023 | Malmö, Sweden

Workshop website: https://wasp-hs.org/the-surveillant-assemblage-in-the-age-of-ai/

Organizing Committee:
Marie Eneman, Mikael Gustavsson & Jan Ljungberg
Department of Applied Information Technology
University of Gothenburg, Sweden

Keynote speaker: Professor Bernd Carsten Stahl
Bernd Carsten Stahl is Professor of Critical Research in Technology at the School of Computer Science of the University of Nottingham and former Director of the Centre for Computing and Social Responsibility at De Montfort University, Leicester, UK.

The workshop is organized in connection with the main conference AI for Humanity and Society November 14-15, 2023: https://wasp-hs.org/events/ai-for-humanity-and-society-2023/

Introduction:
It has now been over 20 years since Haggerty and Ericsson’s (2000) seminal work on surveillant assemblages was published where they departed from the argument that two metaphors ‘Big Brother’ (Orwell, 1949) and ‘Panopticon’ (Foucault, 1977) had dominated the discussion of the contemporary developments in surveillance at the time. In this workshop, we will critically reflect on how the surveillant assemblage can be understood in our contemporary society and what dominates the current societal debate. Developments in digitalization and artificial intelligence (AI) are laying the ground for surveillance capabilities of a magnitude we have never seen before, extending the intensity and scope of surveillance, to become more powerful, ubiquitous, and embedded in our daily lives. It should be emphasized that the emerging digital surveillance technologies should not be understood as individual tools related to certain practices, but rather a convergence of earlier discrete surveillance technologies into the surveillant assemblage. The introduction of surveillance provides high expectation of increased efficiency and security in society, while generating a set of tensions and dilemmas related to policy-making and regulation to protect fundamental democratic values and rights such as privacy and freedom of expression. The development of the powerful surveillant assemblage relates to an interplay of different factors such as:

A rapid, technical development of surveillance devices that collect information on citizens, e.g., stationary surveillance systems (CCTV), body-worn cameras, drones, biometrics such as facial and object recognition, secret data interception and a variety of sensors.
Increased platform surveillance as dominant pervasive social structures.
Availability of a large amount of data that comes from digital platforms and a plethora of personal digital services, such as social media, smart phones, GPS, and health apps, constituting a huge repository of information about citizens and their activities, readily available for use in surveillance, marketing, and political campaigning also known as dataveillance and surveillance capitalism.
Developments in AI and machine learning, advances the analytical step in surveillance, for both historical, real time and predictive analysis. A topical example is the controversial facial recognition app Clearview AI, based on a large volume of images of individuals scraped from social media.
Increased mandate for authorities to conduct surveillance e.g the new Swedish legislation ‘Secret Data Interception’ enabling the police to use “hacking” as a work method.
The intricate interplay between public and private actors, e.g. how government logics of interest to increase security in society are entangled into market-driven logics for capital and its consequences for how government work is organized.
Increased risks for fundamental democratic rights as privacy and freedom of expression, which raises important questions related to how rights as privacy can be conceptualized in relation to AI surveillance and how privacy can and should be protected.
The new EU proposal called ‘Chat Control’ which would enable mass surveillance of citizens in the EU, motivated by expectations that it will contribute to fight crimes.The proposal suggests that all internet service providers in the EU should be forced to monitor all communication on their platforms using Chat control’s algorithms.

Objectives with the workshop
The core aim of the workshop is to provide a platform and bring together researchers and other relevant stakeholders such as law and policy-makers, practitioners and developers to critically discuss issues related to surveillance and privacy in our contemporary society. In Sweden and within the EU, there is currently a strong political will and pressure to further extend the mandate for state and private actors to use surveillance motivated by the need to increase efficiency and security in society. This raises important questions on how the potential with emerging technologies can be used responsibly to increase security in society while protecting fundamental democratic values such as privacy and freedom of expression. The workshop welcomes a broad audience – researchers, law and policy-makers, practitioners and developers.

Registration and submission
Welcome to submit an extended abstract of 1000-1200 words (excluding the reference list) related to the workshop theme on critical issues related to the contemporary development of surveillance in society. The abstract should be emailed to marie [dot] eneman [at] gu.se with the subject surveillance workshop no later than August 15.

Submission deadline: 15 August, 2023
Notification: 22 August, 2023

Please note that in order to participate in this workshop you must also register for the main conference. Registration for the conference opens on 15 August.

Other:
WASP-HS is considering publishing a collection of papers from the workshops as a joint volume. Please direct any of your questions about the workshop to main organizer: Marie Eneman at – marie [dot] eneman [at] gu.se

Open Call for Future Surveillance Studies Network Conferences

Surveillance & Society and the Surveillance Studies Network are seeking Expressions of Interest for hosting our biennial conference in 2026, 2028 and beyond.

We are looking for universities and research institutes with accessible venues, which can host a 3-day conference for at least 300 people, with at least 6 streams of parallel sessions every day, and an additional doctoral colloquium preceding the main conference. Ideally, we would also want the entire conference to be hybrid and available online.

We will accept EoIs until 2 months before the prior conference – so the end of March 2024 will be the deadline for EoIs for the 2026 event. Then the announcement of the next venue will be made at the conference.

Please note that our conference helps to fund SSN, which is a UK-registered educational charity, that owns and publishes Surveillance & Society.

Please send all EoIs to David Murakami Wood, david <dot> mw <at> uottawa <dot> ca

Surveillance & Society Readership and Citations

Are you interested in which articles are being cited and downloaded from Surveillance & Society?

We have just updated our Readership and Citation section for 2023, including a Top 30 Most Cited Articles, a Top 30 Most Read Articles, and a Top 20 Trending Articles (pieces published over the last two years).

Available here: https://ojs.library.queensu.ca/index.php/surveillance-and-society/readership

Call for Papers: Oregon Surveillance Studies Workshop 2023

Oregon Surveillance Studies Workshop 2023

October 13–14, 2023 | University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon (USA)

Conference Theme: Media, Information, and Surveillance

Organized by the Surveillance Studies Network (SSN) and hosted by the University of Oregon’s School of Journalism and Communication (SOJC), with additional support from Oregon State University’s School of Communication.

Conference website: https://blogs.uoregon.edu/ssnoregon2023/

Conference Co-Chairs:

Bryce Newell – University of Oregon
Joshua Reeves – Oregon State University

Theme:

The 2023 Oregon Surveillance Studies Workshop welcomes proposals from scholars across disciplines to workshop works-in-progress papers that focus on issues of surveillance and/in society, with a particular emphasis on scholarship that brings media, communication, or information studies perspectives to these issues. Our broad theme is focused on the interconnections between “Media, Information, and Surveillance.” Proposals that align with the theme of the conference will receive some priority in the selection process. By framing the conference theme around issues of media, information, and surveillance, we hope to foster connections and dialogue about how approaching and understanding emerging surveillance practices and technologies from media studies, communication theory, information science, and critical data studies perspectives can provide new insights or open new directions for surveillance studies research. For example: How can theories, concepts, and approaches from media studies and the information sciences inform how we conceptualize, study, and regulate emerging forms of data-intensive surveillance?

More details:

Over twenty years ago, in 2002, Gary Marx presented his ideas about “the new surveillance” (Marx 2002) in the first issue of Surveillance & Society. Examining the evolution of surveillance practices and their increasing reliance on information technologies, Marx argued that the defining feature of this new surveillance was “the use of technical means to extract or create personal data” (Marx 2002: 12). Much has changed in the intervening years, both in terms of technology and surveillance practices, but this definition continues to apply to new forms of data-intensive surveillance today. At the same time, the transdisciplinary field of surveillance studies has matured over the past two decades, bringing together scholars from a variety of academic disciplines interested in conducting research at the intersections of surveillance and society. The purpose of this workshop is to bring together scholars from the fields of media studies, communication, the information sciences, critical data studies, and related fields to explore how theories, concepts, and ideas from these fields can inform transdisciplinary research and scholarship into the realities, social implications, and regulation of new and emerging surveillance and data-intensive technologies in society.

The Oregon Surveillance Studies Workshop is a discussion-based conference in which each session is dedicated to discussing and providing feedback on a single draft paper. Designated discussants briefly present the paper and provide comments and feedback, after which the author may respond (but does not present or summarize their paper), and then the room is opened for broad discussion amongst, and feedback from, everyone else in attendance. Because of this format, participants are expected to have read papers before the sessions and to actively provide constructive feedback. As such, conference participants have ample opportunities to engage and contribute to the sessions even if they do not workshop a paper (for example, as a discussant who provides commentary and feedback).

The conference will take place over two days and will include both physical and virtual attendance options. We anticipate hosting several sessions of the conference as dedicated or hybrid virtual sessions designed to allow scholars who are not able to easily travel to Oregon the opportunity to participate in at least some of the discussions at the conference. However, not all of the physical sessions of the conference will be streamed virtually, so virtual attendance is likely to provide a much more limited array of attendance options than in-person attendance. Applicants must designate on their initial application whether they are available to attend in person or only remotely. The in-person conference will include face-to-face roundtable discussions on both days of the conference as well as several meals and extended breaks to allow for networking and informal discussions to take place between participants. We anticipate being able to workshop at least 24 papers in person, with several more offered in a virtual format.

Dates and deadlines:

Abstract submission deadline: June 30, 2023
Acceptance/rejection decisions back to authors: July 22, 2023
Registration (early bird) deadline: August 18, 2023
Author/Discussant/Commenter final registration deadline: Sept. 16, 2023
Full drafts of accepted papers due: Sept. 16, 2023 (full drafts not submitted by this date will be withdrawn from the program)*
Conference dates: October 12-13, 2023

*Important note about full drafts: Proposals will be accepted on the basis of abstracts, but full drafts of accepted papers must be submitted in time for discussants and other participants to read and prepare comments as noted below. If authors of accepted abstracts do not submit a full draft paper by the Sept. 16 deadline, their paper will be removed from the program and will not be workshopped at the conference.

Submission instructions:

Authors should submit an abstract as part of their application to have their research workshopped at the conference. Your abstracts should be in English and be between 500 and 700 words. You should clearly and concisely link your ideas and research to existing scholarly literature (and fully reference cited literature in a references section following your abstract). Abstracts should identify the theories, concepts, methods, and conclusions of your paper, and should also demonstrate your awareness and understanding of the existing relevant literature and explain how your work relates to, informs, or diverges from the existing body of knowledge. If you wish to cite your own work in your abstract, you should refer to your work in the third person – for example, “As Newell and Reeves (2023) argued,” instead of something like “in our prior work….”

Note: Abstracts which reveal the identity of the author(s), are not accompanied by full references to prior work (those cited in the abstract), or which are significantly below 500 words or above 700 words will be rejected without review.

Finally, please remember that substantially completed full drafts (which need not be polished but should be complete enough for meaningful discussion and feedback during the conference) will be required for all accepted proposals.

Please indicate in your abstract/application whether you anticipate being available to attend the conference in person or whether you intend to participate remotely. (Note that there will be more limited opportunities for remote participation.)

You should submit your abstracts through EasyChair (link: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=ssnoregon2023).

Questions?

Please direct any of your questions to the conference co-chairs, Bryce Newell (bcnewell@uoregon.edu) and Joshua Reeves (reevejos@oregonstate.edu). Please put “SSN Oregon 2023” in the subject line of your email. Please also check the conference website for additional information as the conference dates get closer: https://blogs.uoregon.edu/ssnoregon2023/

Our Sponsors:

Surveillance Studies Network (SSN)

University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication (SOJC)

Oregon State University School of Communication

Surveillance Studies Network Arts Prize 2024

The Surveillance Studies Network (SSN) is dedicated to the study of surveillance in all its forms. It promotes innovative and multidisciplinary work on surveillance, including research that bridges different academic fields, furthers the understanding of surveillance in wider society, and informs information policy and political debate. As a registered charitable company, the SSN is committed to the free distribution of scholarly products, including the publication of Surveillance & Society, the leading peer-reviewed journal dedicated to surveillance studies.

As part of its mandate, the SSN seeks to encourage creative and artistic practices engaging with the topic of surveillance. As such, the Surveillance Studies Network Arts Prize is a bi-annual award that recognizes and publicly supports artwork centred on critical readings of surveillance. Following the success of its previous Arts Prizes in 2018, 2020, and 2022, the SSN is delighted to announce the call for nominations to the 2024 competition.

Award

All submissions are adjudicated by a committee composed of members of the SSN board. The award for first prize is £250 and up to three honourable mentions will receive £100. Additionally, the winner and each honourable mention will receive a fee waiver for conference registration at the forthcoming SSN Conference (location and date TBA) in summer 2024, as well as coverage in a Surveillance & Society forum and the blink blog discussing the work. Travel support may also be available, funds permitting. Winning artists will also receive an invitation to showcase their work, or a representation of it, in a virtual exhibition during SSN’s 2024 conference.

Please note that, due to the evolving COVID-19 pandemic, the format of the 2024 SSN conference and thus the administration of the Arts Prize may be subject to change to accommodate changing public health measures.

The nominated work must be an original art project that was produced or exhibited in the 2020, 2021, or 2022 calendar years. The following criteria will be used to adjudicate the nominations:

· demonstrates a thematic fit with the critical orientation of the Surveillance Studies Network and Surveillance & Society;

· exhibits theoretical sophistication;

· produces new and unique ways of thinking about modes of surveillance;

· and promotes audience engagements.

Deadlines and Forms

The call for nominations closes on 15 July 2023 at 11:59pm EST, with the selected artworks announced in December 2023. To nominate an artwork for the upcoming competition, please download and complete the following form: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ENj5aqOI5EBhoZe-4xvk8JJesr930F8lbWT8mmetkPA/edit

Self-nominations are welcome.

For further information, please contact Julia Chan, Arts Committee Co-Chair at julia.chan@ucalgary.ca and include the heading “SSN Arts Prize.”

*Submission forms are hosted by Google. For a PDF version, please send a request to julia.chan@ucalgary.ca with the heading “SSN Arts Prize form—PDF request.”

Call for expressions of interest: SSN Treasurer

The Surveillance Studies Network (SSN) is looking for a Treasurer to oversee and coordinate the financial affairs of SSN. The Treasurer will also play a role on the SSN’s Network and Editorial Board (NEB).

The Surveillance Studies Network (SSN) is a registered charitable company dedicated to the study of surveillance in all its forms. It owns the free access journal Surveillance & Society and runs the biennial Surveillance and Society conference that brings together scholars and artists from all over the world. SSN is governed by an Executive Board of Directors and its day-to-day business, alongside the management of the journal, is completed by members of the Network and Editorial Board. The success and growth of SSN is reliant on the vitality, commitment and dedication of our members who fulfill elected (unpaid) positions on the Board.

We are seeking expressions of interest from academics and scholars within the broad surveillance studies community to join our Network and Editorial Board and assume the responsibilities of Treasurer. As with all SSN NEB and Executive Board positions, this position is unpaid. We anticipate bringing a new Treasurer on board for an initial term of 24 months, with possible extension depending on mutual agreement.

For more information about SSN, see our website at https://www.surveillance-studies.net/ and the website for our journal at http://surveillance-and-society.org.

Eligibility

UK residency. Because SSN is currently registered as a charity in the United Kingdom and our financial accounts and assets are also based predominantly in the UK, this position must be filled by someone who lives and works in the UK;
Applicants should be currently employed within the academic or research community and be involved in surveillance -studies-related research and/or teaching;
Have basic experience with accounting and financial management;
Applicants need not be current SSN members at the time of application, but the successful applicant would be expected to join SSN prior to appointment and maintain SSN membership throughout their tenure in the position.

Responsibilities

Work with the SSN Executive Board and NEB to ensure financial aspects and arrangements of the organization are kept up to date and in conformance with relevant law and regulations;
Draft an annual SSN budget in consultation with the SSN Executive Board;
Communicate with and submit reports to the UK Charity Commission;
Manage and complete financial/excel sheets and work with our Accountant to ensure proper record keeping;
Manage and initiate payments to SSN prize and grant winners;
Liaising with the SSN conference organizing committee about invoices, reimbursements, and other financial matters related to SSN conferences and events.

Deadline and how to apply

The deadline for initial expressions of interest is 30 April 2023. We will review applications on a rolling basis after the deadline if needed and until the position is filled. Please direct any queries to Bryce Newell (SSN Co-Director) at bcnewell@uoregon.edu.

We ask that you submit your CV and a brief cover letter expressing your interest in the position and how your background gives you the experience or skills necessary to fulfill the responsibilities of this position.

Please submit your application materials via the following form: https://forms.gle/7czd7BxYDUju6rz46

Announcement: mentorship progamme

Dear Colleagues,