Surveillance Studies Summer Seminar (SSSS)

Francesca Pichierri was selected to attend the Surveillance Studies Summer Seminar (SSSS) 2017 run by the Surveillance Studies Centre at Queen´s University, Kingston, Canada. The Surveillance Studies Centre (SSC) is a well-known multi-disciplinary and international research centre that provides high quality research in the field of surveillance studies. The Centre has been one of the driving forces behind the growth of this transdisciplinary field and it is directed by Professor David Lyon, one of the leading scholars of surveillance studies.

The seminar’s theme was Surveillance in the Big Data Era. Nowadays, Big Data and data mining techniques are at the core of surveillance activities; this entails that personal data is no longer collected for certain limited, specific and transparent purposes; rather, data is collected in bulk before determining its actual and potential uses. All kind of information is then particularly relevant for predictive analytics, used to predict, understand and intervene before behaviours, events and processes are set in train. This prompts fresh queries about privacy, data protection, social sorting and civil liberties.

The program covered a range of topics in the context of Big Data surveillance from a varying of disciplinary approaches, with links between academia, policy and activism; seminars were held by top scholars within the field and researchers had the chance to present their research work and enjoy the opportunity for discussion and constructive feedback from seminar faculty and other participants. Francesca therefore presented her submitted paper on Emotion surveillance and the risk of manipulative uses of emotion insights.

The Seminar was an extremely valuable learning experience and it was also a great international networking opportunity. Francesca had the chance to disseminate her research, receive precious feedback, listen to and learn from other participants´ high quality research work, work in group to build strong research projects proposals, and especially form new contacts with scholars and other researchers across the field of surveillance studies and privacy that can lead to new collaborations.

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