CSS/Lab launches soon…

Following the launch of my CRC, I am launching a new virtual research lab here at uOttawa. CSS/Lab is basically an envelop for my current projects (see Research). The here will be a website soon linked to CLTS here at uOttawa, but here is what will be on that site:

CSS/Lab 

research group on critical surveillance & security studies at uOttawa

About CSS/Lab

CSS/Lab (pronounced “slæb”) is built around the Canada Research Chair in Critical Surveillance & Security Studies at the University of Ottawa. 

CSS/Lab exists to examine, question and critique the ubiquity of surveillance at all scales from body to planet (and beyond). It is a transdisciplinary research group that brings surveillance studies into conversation with many other disciplines and fields. It aims to push surveillance studies in new directions, both in building critical social theories of surveillance and security, and through active empirical work in multiple locations and contexts.  

CSS/Lab Research

CSS/Lab’s current active projects consider:

1. “Platform Cities in an Age of Planetary Surveillance” 
   • Surveillance and the governance of (post-)smart cities
   • Enclaves, Zones and City-States
2. Planetary security and surveillance
   • Surveillance and authoritarianism
   • Surveillance and the climate crisis
   • Security intelligence agencies and the climate crisis
3. Artificial Intelligence (AI), data and dataveillance
   • Genealogies of AI and the Internet of Things (IoT)
4. “AI East/West” – an ongoing effort to bring scholars from Japan and Canada together to rethink the ethics and politics of AI
5. “Hired Hackers and Private Spies” – private surveillance companies and the political economy of the surveillance industry
6. “Speculative Security” – thinking positive global futures beyond dystopian surveillance scenarios 

CSS/Lab Director

David Murakami Wood

Canada Research Chair in Critical Surveillance & Security Studies / Full Professor, Department of Criminology / Co-editor-in-Chief, Surveillance & Society / Board of Directors, Surveillance Studies Network.

CSS/Lab Members

Azadeh Akbari, CCS/Lab Visiting Scholar, 2024-7 / Assistant Professor, University of Twente NL / European Commission Marie Skłodowska-Curie (MSC) Global Fellow, “Authoritarian smart cities”

Jennie Day, CSS/Lab Postdoctoral Fellow, 2024-5, “Hired hackers and private spies”

Ashley Poon, PhD researcher, Department of Criminology, “Public perceptions of authoritarian surveillance policies”

David Eliot, PhD researcher, Department of Criminology / Trudeau Foundation Fellow, “A Genealogy of Artificial Intelligence”

Zimo Meng, PhD researcher, Department of Criminology / CSS/Lab Research Assistant, “(Post-)smart cities in China and Singapore”

Claire Wang, PhD researcher, Department of Criminology, “Surveillance and the Internet of Things”

CSS/Lab Associates (*more tbc)

Vincent Mirza, Associate Professor, School of Sociological and Anthropological Studies / Director, Research Centre on the Future of Cities

Valerie Steeves, Full Professor, Department of Criminology / Co-leader, e-quality Project.

CSS/Lab Connections

CCS/Lab is connected to several research centres and organizations across the University of Ottawa: 

• Centre for Law, Technology & Society (CLTS/CDTS)
• Centre for International Policy Studies (CIPS/CEPI)
• Research Centre on the Future of Cities; and 
• International Research and Experiential Learning (IREX) in the Office of the Vice-President, Research and Innovation (OVPRI).

CCS/Lab works globally:

• We are applying to be a recognized affiliate of the international Surveillance Studies Network (SSN).
• We are working in collaboration with colleagues at:
  •  CEThicS at the Catholic University of Lille, France
  • Philosophy of the City research group, based at the University of Twente in the Netherlands.
  • • Weizenbaum Institut in Berlin, Germany
• Our projects currently include case-studies and partnerships in Canada, China, France, Singapore, Thailand, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Honduras and Gabon.