With the dissertation completed (the defense still awaits), I can now turn my attention to a few other projects for the summer months. Primary among them is finishing up a book collecting various interdisciplinary research papers on Web search engines I’m editing with Amanda Spink.
Also on the summer agenda are two exciting workshops. First, I’ll be attending the “Surveillance Summer Seminar” hosted by the Surveillance Project at Queens University:
The Surveillance Summer Seminar provides an intensive, multi-disciplinary learning experience that addresses key issues of surveillance studies, and in ways that would enhance the participants’ own research projects as well as providing a unique national and international networking opportunity.
The core of the seminar is group work, each facilitated by a member of seminar faculty. Groups will grapple with key issues in surveillance studies, including issues such as “The researcher as surveillance agent,” “Gaining entry into surveillance sites,” “Making international comparisons,” “Connecting social science with policy and legal fields” and so on. Participants are encouraged to comment, in their statement of interest, on what areas are of particular interest. The rest of the programme is devoted to theoretical, methodological and professional issues, and to open interaction with established scholars in the field. The idea is to “go behind” conference and book performances to discover how and why surveillance researchers do what they do. There will also be discussion of surveillance films, novels, art, music and drama and a look at counter-surveillance movements and activities.
And I’ve also been accepted to participate in the Oxford Internet Institutes’s annual “Summer Doctoral Programme,” which is held in conjunction with the The Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School:
The 2007 Summer Doctoral Programme will maintain the high standard for rigorous intellectual interaction, inter-disciplinary exchange and novel research methods and goals, while introducing new approaches. The Cambridge edition will draw substantially upon the OII’s work and faculty, integrating it with the Berkman Center’s research and community, and also injecting participation by a diverse and accomplished group of colleagues and friends.
The course structure will be broadly similar to previous years’ Programmes with daily research seminars and discussions led by leading academics, practitioners and entrepreneurs. All students will be asked to present their research to their peers in informal seminars and we will request abstracts for these seminars before the start of the Programme (details to follow). Seminars and other teaching should average approximately five hours contact time per day, leaving students with plenty of opportunity to meet informally with faculty and fellow students, work on their own research, and possibly even develop new projects.
Should be an exciting and stimulating summer…
UPDATE: Forgot to mention that I’ll also be attending and presenting a paper at CEPE 2007…
MichaelZimmer.org 