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Final call for survey participants: on the teaching of Extended Reality Technologies & Synthetic Media in Screen Media Programmes
by Jennifer O'Meara 14 Sep '23

14 Sep '23

Dear Colleagues, Many thanks to those who responded to the July call. This is a final call for those* who work in the Higher Education sector and teach on screen media programmes (such as those related to Film Studies / Media Studies / Digital Media Studies)*. Please consider taking part in a new survey investigating *the teaching of extended reality and deceptive technologies in Higher Education screen media programmes*. You can access the survey and the participant information leaflet here: https://forms.office.com/e/mPcDEjYkyM Participation is invited from around the world and the survey should take *10-15 minutes* to complete. Please note that *you do not need to be teaching these technologies to take part*. This study is examining the extent to which screen media studies programmes in Higher Education are integrating content related to extended reality and deceptive technologies (such as virtual reality, augmented reality, ‘deepfakes’ and AI-generated media) as a result of the development and mainstreaming of these media technologies in contemporary culture. This survey will gather information on if, and how, these technologies are being taught at two points in time (summer 2023; summer 2026), with a view to understanding trends in their teaching. The survey aims to gain a better understanding of perceptions of these technologies among screen studies academics, including how they relate to traditional disciplinary approaches and any obstacles to them being taught. The survey is anonymous and no personal data will be processed for the purposes of the study. This study is being conducted as part of a broader project, funded by an Irish Research Council Laureate Award (2022-2026), entitled “From Cinematic Realism to Extended Reality: Reformulating Screen Studies at the Precipice of Hyper-reality” (REFORMSCREEN). Thank you in advance for your input if you decide to participate. Best wishes, Jennifer O’Meara ---------------------------------------- Dr Jennifer O’Meara, FTCD Associate Professor in Film Studies Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin Dublin 2, Ireland.

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Digital Methods Winter School '24 - Univ. Amsterdam
by rogers＠govcom.org 14 Sep '23

14 Sep '23

Digital Methods Winter School 2024 ’Digital investigation with AI’ 8-12 January 2024 New Media & Digital Culture Media Studies University of Amsterdam Turfdraagsterpad 9 1012 XT Amsterdam the Netherlands Call for participation The Digital Methods Initiative (DMI), Amsterdam, is holding its annual Winter School on ’Digital investigation with AI’. The format is that of a (social media and web) data sprint, with tutorials as well as hands-on work for telling stories with data. There is also a programme of keynote speakers. It is intended for advanced Master's students, PhD candidates and motivated scholars who would like to work on (and complete) a digital methods project in an intensive workshop setting. Digital investigation with AI Online information in the public domain has been the source of study of societal trends and cultural condition for some time now. Geo-located search queries and social media engagement have been deployed as proxies for interests, concerns and sentiments. For a variety of reasons from data access to algorithmic effects, there has been an easing away from trace research and at the same time a growing interest in digital investigation. It focuses less on trends and more on 'fact-finding' or 'what actually happened'. In a sense it is an understandable shift, given the impact of the 'fake news' crisis that transpired on social media during the U.S. presidential election of 2016 and subsequent votes in Europe and beyond. Since then there have been grander narratives of the current informational situation online such as the rise of a 'post-truth' era. To settle things down a variety of digital investigative epistemologies are the focus of attention from fact-checking, debunking and source and media verification to algorithmic auditing. They seek to address a wide variety of disruptions to the new media landscape, such as media and attention manipulation to continual influence and information campaigning and coordinated behaviour, whether with harmful intention or more ironic and troll-like. The Winter School takes up a series of questions concerning the investigative turn from the impact of disinformation and content moderation to the new conditions of artificiality and detection with AI. At the Winter School there are the usual social media tool training tutorials for working on single and cross-platform analysis, but also continued attention to thinking through and proposing how to work critically with social media data, both from mainstream social media platforms as well as so-called alt tech. Apart from the keynotes and the training tutorials, there are also empirical and conceptual projects that participants work on. To gain a flavour of the type of projects to expect, the past Summer School included these: # Disinformation Impact Assessment - Does the work of “opinion shapers” matter? # Prompting for Biodiversity: Visual research with AI # Hashtag and Genre Analysis #Seçim2023 on TikTok: Focusing on the Turkish Presidential Elections # The Divine Online? Mapping Algorithmic Conspirituality on TikTok # Testing LLMs for conflict & dialogue analysis on social media # The force of falsity? When AI prompt guesses or narratives about debunked images sow more confusion about the fake # Examining Web Detection Algorithms # The Art in Artificial: AI as Co-Creation Storytelling Device # Mapping post-truth narratives concerning the war in Ukraine # Exploring the Impact of LLM-Powered Search Engines on Political Candidates # Revolution By Other Memes: Online Subcultures, Modular Ideologies And The Political Compass # From Ranking to Clustering Cultures: towards a time-varying network analysis of YouTube algorithms on Global Warming and Climate Change # The Anatomy of (In)Direct Harassment Application information at https://wiki.digitalmethods.net/Dmi/WinterSchool2024 Winter School ’24 organisers: Richard Rogers, Kamila Koronska and Guillen Torres, Media Studies, University of Amsterdam. Best regards Richard Rogers Media Studies University of Amsterdam

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Applications are open for CDT's Non-Residential Fellows program (2024)
by Dhanaraj Thakur 13 Sep '23

13 Sep '23

Hi everyone, The Center for Democracy & Technology <https://cdt.org/> (CDT) is now accepting applications <https://cdt.org/about/fellows/> for its 2024 cohort of non-residential Fellows. Our work addresses several tech policy areas including the use of AI and the policy implications for privacy, free expression and content moderation, security and surveillance, and election integrity, among others. The non-resident Fellows program is a great opportunity for researchers to use their work to inform important tech policy debates. This includes opportunities to publish their work, particularly for non-academic audiences; attending and potentially presenting at CDT events that include industry, government, civil society, and academic audiences; and potentially participating in CDT led events to directly engage policy-makers in the U.S., the EU, and elsewhere. In addition, new Fellows will join an amazing network of researchers and academics <https://cdt.org/about/fellows/current-fellows/>. We encourage applications from interested persons who will commit to a two-year, nonresident engagement and possess a Ph.D., JD, or equivalent in their respective field of study. This can include but is not limited to communication, public policy, sociology, psychology, computer science, economics, law, anthropology, etc. Interested candidates should have experience working on tech policy issues in the U.S. and/or the EU and be affiliated with an academic institution at the time of their application. Applicants should submit a cover letter, including areas of interest and how they are aligned with CDT’s work, resume, and one relevant writing sample which should already be published. Please use this link to submit your application <https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfai1I07O6AhCT4XW4J5pd6AAftsgPv1Jz…>. If you have any questions please please contact us: research(a)cdt.org <mailto:research@cdt.org>. Finally, feel free to share with relevant colleagues. Thanks! Dhanaraj -- *Dhanaraj Thakur* (he/him) | Research Director Center for Democracy & Technology |*cdt.org <https://cdt.org/>* *E:* dthakur(a)cdt.org | *P:* +1 202 407 8849 | @thakurdhanaraj

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Streaming Culture, final seminar - Milan, 20 September 2023
by Alessandro Gandini 13 Sep '23

13 Sep '23

Dear colleagues With apologies for cross-posting, we are pleased to invite you to the final event of the Streaming Culture<http://streamingculture.info/> project, which investigates how the forms of digital production and consumption of culture have changed in Lombardy (Italy) in coincidence with the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. CONTINUITY AND TRANSFORMATION IN CULTURAL PRODUCTION Wednesday 20 September, 09:00 - 18:00 Aula Pagani, 3rd floor, building U7 Department of Sociology, Bicocca University of Milan via Bicocca degli Arcimboldi 8, MILAN 09:00 -09:30 Greetings and introduction 09.30 - 11.00 presentation of the research by the Streaming Culture working group (in English) 11:00-11:30 Coffee Break 11.30 - 13.00 keynote speech: Justus Uitermark, Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research, and John Boy, Leiden University "Connections between the digital and the urban space". Discussant: Giulia Giorgi, University of Milan (in English) 1.00pm - 2.30pm Lunch 2.30pm - 6.00pm Two round tables (in Italian) which will address the issue of the transformation of the digital sphere in the Lombard cultural institutions and organizations: from 2.30pm to 4.00pm: Silvia Tarassi, expert in cultural policies Marco Minoja, Director of the Culture Department of the Municipality of Milan Roberto Adamoli, Fai Fund for the Italian Environment Jacopo Tondelli, journalist Moderator: Alessandro Gandini, University of Milan from 4.30pm to 6.00pm Michele Andreoletti, Cariplo Foundation Marco Ogliari, DG culture of the Lombardy Region Alessandro Gerosa, Birmingham Business School Oliviero Ponte di Pino, journalist Moderator: Marianna d'Ovidio, University of Milan-Bicocca Feel free to forward it to anyone you think might be interested. Many thanks, -- Alessandro Gandini Associate Professor of Cultural Sociology University of Milan, Department of Social and Political Sciences PI of the CRAFTWORK project - ERC Starting Grants 2020 https://craftwork.unimi.it

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Researcher (Ghana), Digital Health and Rights
by Sara Leila Margaret Davis 13 Sep '23

13 Sep '23

Dear colleagues, The National Association of Persons Living with HIV (NAP+ Ghana) is recruiting for a researcher located in Ghana to work with them on the Digital Health and Rights project, a transnational participatory action research approach engaging young adults in research, education and advocacy ( see description attached). The term is one year renewable. The deadline for applications is next *Friday, September 22nd, 2023.* Thank you very much for helping to share this so they get the best possible candidate. More information about our project is online here: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/cim/research/digital-health-rights For any questions, please email *napplusghana(a)gmail.com <napplusghana(a)gmail.com> *directly. Best Meg -- *Sara (Meg) Davis, Ph.D.* *Research Associate, *Global Governance Centre, Geneva Graduate Institute *Professor,* Digital Health and Rights, University of Warwick Digital Health and Rights Project <https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/cim/research/research-projects/digital-…> Book: *The Uncounted: Politics of Data in Global Health <https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/uncounted/C0CC81C0F03D1822D05C13EE31FA…>* Ted talk: The Uncounted: The people left out of health data <https://www.ted.com/talks/sara_meg_davis_the_uncounted_the_people_left_out_…>

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Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Digital Studies - University of Michigan, DSI
by Germaine R Halegoua 12 Sep '23

12 Sep '23

Hi everyone, The Digital Studies Institute (DSI) at the University of Michigan invites candidates for the DSI Postdoctoral Research Fellowship with one course per year teaching load. This is a 12-month term-limited position beginning 8/26/2024, with the potential to be renewed for a second 12-month term. Review of applications begins January 7. Please find further information about the position below, attached, and here <https://apply.interfolio.com/131042>. And please feel free to forward to anyone who might be interested. Thank you! Germaine --- The Digital Studies Institute (DSI) at the University of Michigan invites candidates for the DSI Postdoctoral Research Fellowship with one course per year teaching load. This is a 12-month term-limited position beginning 8/26/2024, with the potential to be renewed for a second 12-month term. Applications are welcome from interdisciplinary scholars with demonstrated research expertise in Digital Studies and closely affiliated fields. This position is an ideal opportunity for a scholar with an interest in broadly defined critical digital studies, whose work may come from a wide range of disciplines, including but not limited to philosophy, art and design, language and literature, anthropology, critical ethnic studies, history, digital archives, law and social work, and other fields in the humanities and qualitative social sciences. The post-doctoral fellow will be affiliated primarily with the Digital Studies Institute and will work closely with an interdisciplinary range of faculty and students. This is a 100% effort position over the 12 months (8/26/2024-8/31/2025). It is expected there will be a combination of research (50%), teaching (16.67%), and programmatic development (33.33%) during the nine-month academic year, and research (67%) and programmatic development (33.33%) during the spring/summer term. Postdoctoral Fellows are expected to be in residence no later than August 26, 2024. As part of the programmatic development effort, the Fellow will be responsible for organizing or participating in two relevant topical events per year (e.g., roundtables, lectures, installations, brown-bags, pedagogy workshops, etc.) in collaboration with the Associate Director of DSI. The Fellow will also have a key role in helping organize the Digital IDEAS Summer Institute that will occur in June 2024. Teaching one course per year as a Lecturer is the expectation. Courses will be assigned at the discretion of the Associate Director, in consultation with the Fellow, depending upon the needs of the unit, qualifications of the Fellow, etc. Duties and responsibilities for the Lecturer position are, in addition to teaching one course per year, holding office hours, supervising Graduate Student Instructors (if applicable), and handling routine matters related to instruction. The total effort will be coordinated so as to total 100% over the 12 months. Full-time rate (FTR): $60,000/12 months (plus $5,000/year allocation for research expense reimbursement) The Lecturer position is covered under the collective bargaining agreement between the U-M and the Lecturers Employee Organization, AFL-CIO, which contains and settles all matters with respect to wages, benefits, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment. Qualifications - PhD in a Digital Studies-related field (by August 26, 2024), broadly understood - Demonstrated excellence in college-level teaching. Application Instructions Applications received by January 7, 2024 will be guaranteed consideration, but will continue to be reviewed as they are received until the position is filled. -- Germaine R. Halegoua (she/her) John D. Evans Development Professor & Associate Professor of Communication and Media Director of Graduate Studies, Digital Studies Institute <https://www.digitalstudies.umich.edu/> University of Michigan Author: The Digital City <https://nyupress.org/9781479882199/the-digital-city/>, Smart Cities <https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/smart-cities>

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Up to 5 PhD Scholarships in the Sydney Games and Play Lab
by Marcus Carter 12 Sep '23

12 Sep '23

Hello friends! The Sydney Games and Play lab has been awarded up to 5 PhD scholarships in game studies (AU$37,207 pa). The scholarship includes all fees, is tax-free, and international students are eligible! You can read about the opportunity here: https://www.sydney.edu.au/arts/study/scholarships/phd-scholarships/sydney-g… Please share with your students who might be thinking about doing a PhD in games and related topics (e.g. VR & AR). Successful applicants will be joining an established HDR cohort and terrific research environment. The application deadline is Oct 31, with more details on how to apply here: https://www.sydney.edu.au/scholarships/b/faculty-of-arts-and-social-science… We are prioritising projects that connect to our existing research projects. You can read more about our all current projects on the lab website: https://www.sydney.edu.au/arts/our-research/research-projects/sydney-games-… Please reach out to me (marcus.carter(a)sydney.edu.au<mailto:marcus.carter@sydney.edu.au>) if you have any questions or would like to learn more. Best wishes, MARCUS CARTER | Associate Professor in Digital Cultures, ARC Future Fellow Department of Media and Communications THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY S232 John Wooley Building | The University of Sydney | NSW | 2006 T +61 2 8627 5868 E marcus.carter(a)sydney.edu.au<mailto:firstname.surname@sydney.edu.au>

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CFA FOR NASSP AT THE 2024 EASTERN DIVISION APA
by Laura W. Kane 12 Sep '23

12 Sep '23

*The North American Society for Social Philosophy (NASSP)* is seeking abstracts for participation on a panel on: *Social Ramifications of AI* for its group session at the Eastern Division APA to be held from Jan. 15th -18th, 2024, in New York, NY. (The specific date and time of the session will be announced later in the fall.) *We anticipate being able to accommodate online participation in a hybrid format if necessary.* We welcome submissions from both members and non-members, but we require that all presenters join the North American Society for Social Philosophy if their proposals are accepted and if they present at the conference. We anticipate that each panelist will present for 10 minutes before a general roundtable discussion. Individual abstracts of 300-400 words should be sent to the panel organizers, Laura Kane *laura.kane(a)worcester.edu <laura.kane(a)worcester.edu>* and Shannon Fyfe *sfyfe2(a)gmu.edu <sfyfe2(a)gmu.edu>**, *by *Sept. 30th, 2023.* Please email us with any questions. Topics may include, but are not limited to: The effects of AI on political relationships The effects of AI on economic relationships The effects of AI on social relationships, including intimate relationships Bot/human “relationships” The effects of AI on education, including the transmission of knowledge The effects of AI on artistic expression and artistic appreciation AI and Privacy AI and Data Security AI and Surveillance AI and Employment AI and Stereotyping Bias/Discrimination from AI or against AI Wealth distribution Humane treatment of AI Morale Users of autonomous weapons

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VIDEO: Routing Security Summit 2023 - Panel - ROV Research Review
by Joly MacFie 12 Sep '23

12 Sep '23

This is one that got away from July's Routing Security Summit. It clashed with another session so I recorded it, and embarked on correcting. This task actually proved too much for me, but I did make it about half way through.. Some interesting facts and figures. https://youtu.be/5hwHwQ3UTvI -- -------------------------------------- Joly MacFie +12185659365 -------------------------------------- -

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CfP: "Global Perspectives on Surveillance" (Jump Cut)
by Gary Kafer 12 Sep '23

12 Sep '23

Dear colleagues, I write to share a CfP for a special section of *Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media* on the topic of "Global Perspectives on Surveillance." Deadline Jan 15. Please see the call below. We appreciate any help in spreading the word to your colleagues. Thanks! ### *Global Perspectives on Surveillance* Call for Papers *Special Section of Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media* (editor-in-chief Julia Lesage) *Section Editor*: Gary Kafer (University of Chicago) *Description:* This special section of Jump Cut seeks original research and review essays that examine the global circuits of surveillance that increasingly mark contemporary social and political life. Towards the end of the twentieth century, surveillance studies scholars proclaimed the arrival of a “surveillance society” (Marx 1985; Gandy 1989; Lyon 1994), which soon became global by the turn of the century following the attacks on 9/11 and the War on Terror (Lyon 2004; Murakami 2009; Ström 2020). In many ways indebted to the emergence of novel digital and communication tools, such critiques called attention to increasing levels of tracking practices by national governments and corporations to preempt threats and safeguard capital. No doubt, the global parameters of surveillance were put on full display with the Snowden leaks of 2013 as the world became cognizant of The Five Eyes intelligence alliance (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States), which was soon followed by media coverage of China’s Digital Silk Road Initiative. And yet, even as these developments exposed the globality of surveillance systems, such frameworks tend to maintain the ‘global’ as simply a reference point for the ‘Global North’ and its centers of data accumulation and exchange. Such narratives are troublesome, not in the least for the way that they ignore how surveillance has historically always been transnational in scope, such as in the development of biometrics and identification documents in chattel slavery and penal colonies across colonial and imperial regimes (Browne 2015; Heynen and van der Meulen 2019). At the same time, some global frameworks ignore how many surveillance devices are first developed and tested in sites of settler colonial and capitalist violence—often in the Global South—before being distributed by international defense industries for use elsewhere, such as in Israel’s occupation of Palestine (Halper 2015) or the repression of indigenous communities at the borders of settler states (Schaeffer 2022). Following suit, this special section of Jump Cut explores how the global remains a fraught, if not necessary, framework to grapple with the contemporary politics of surveillance. We invite research that approaches such issues from the fields of media studies, film studies, visual studies, communication studies, and related disciplines to consider how surveillance is a global process located within historically situated cultural, political, and social practices. Such research can address concerns in the twenty-first century as well as longer histories of surveillance. Potential topics include (but are not limited to): • Technologies of border security • Biometrics – past, present, future • Internet infrastructures • Ecologies of resource extraction • Platforms and outsourced labor • Militarization of police • Counter-practices to surveillance • Global surveillance and documentary aesthetics • Representations of global surveillance in entertainment media • Social media in the Global South • Algorithms and discrimination *Submission Information:* We welcome a range of submissions including article length essays, short reflection papers, opinion pieces, book reviews, and film reviews. Submissions will undergo a peer-review and revision process prior to publication. Submissions should be original work, neither previously published nor under consideration for publication elsewhere. All references to previous work by contributors should be masked in the text (e.g., “Author 2020”). Please submit your document in a MS Word-compatible format. *Timeline* Submissions should be emailed to gkafer(a)uchicago.edu by January 15, 2024. Please put “JC – Global Surveillance” in the subject line. Decisions will be communicated by the end of March 2024. Final revisions will be due June 1, 2024. The special section will be published in a forthcoming issue of Jump Cut in the winter of 2024. *References:* Browne, Simone. 2015. Dark Matters: On the Surveillance of Blackness. Durham: Duke University Press. Gandy, Oscar. 1989. “The Surveillance Society: Information Technology and Bureaucratic Social Control.” Journal of Communication 39: 61–76. Halper, Jeff. 2015. War Against the People: Israel, the Palestinians and Global Pacification. London: Pluto Press. Heynen, Robert, and Emily van der Meulen (eds.). 2019. Making Surveillance States: Transnational Histories. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Lyon, David. 1994. The Electronic Eye: The Rise of the Surveillance Society. Cambridge: Polity Press. Lyon, David. 2004. “Globalizing Surveillance.” International Sociology 19: 135–49. Marx, Gary. 1985. “The Surveillance Society: The Threat of 1984-style Techniques.” The Futurist 6: 21–6. Murakami Wood, David. 2009. “The ‘Surveillance Society’: Questions of History, Place and Culture.” European Journal of Criminology 6(2): 179-194. Schaeffer, Felicity Amaya. 2022. Unsettled Borders: The Militarized Science of Surveillance on Sacred Indigenous Land. Durham: Duke University Press. Ström, Timothy Erik. 2020. Globalizing Surveillance. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. -- Gary Kafer Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow Department of Cinema and Media Studies University of Chicago gkafer(a)uchicago.edu

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