Surveillance in an Age of Crisis

The 10th Biennial Surveillance Studies Network / Surveillance & Society Conference
#SSN2024 28-31 May, 2024 Ljubljana, Slovenia

Plenary Sessions

Surveillance and Control in Israel / Palestine (the Elia Zureik Memorial Panel)

Ahmad H. Sa’di

Ahmad H. Sa’di, Associate Professor in the Department of Politics and Government at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. His latest book is Decolonizing the Study of Palestine: Indigenous Perspectives and Settler Colonialism After Elia Zureik, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2023, coedited with Nur Masalha. His publications appeared in English (mainly), Arabic, Hebrew, Japanese, German, Spanish, Farsi and Portuguese. He had been a visiting professor at Waseda, Tokyo, Japan; The National University of Singapore; and Columbia, NY, USA.

David Lyon

David Lyon (chair) is Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Law at Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario. He is the former Director of the Surveillance Studies Centre, which grew from a partnership with Elia Zureik, with whom the first ‘Surveillance Studies’ research workshop was organized in 1993. Lyon’s latest book is Surveillance: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford 2024). Surveillance and Control in Israel/Palestine(2012) was co-edited by Elia Zureik, David Lyon, and Yasmeen Abu-Laban.

 

Mais Qandeel

Mais Qandeel, Senior Lecturer in International Law and Technologies at Örebro University, Sweden, with more than 15 years of experience at national and international human rights organizations/institutions. She has extensive experience in working on issues in relation to international humanitarian law and the question of Palestine. She leads the project: Digital Rights in Palestine, funded by the Swedish Research Council, and her research focuses on the protection of human rights in cyberspace and the legal implications pertaining to the use of new technologies.

Neve Gordon

Neve Gordon, professor of human rights and humanitarian law in the School of Law at Queen Mary University of London, is currently working on a number of projects, including the destruction of healthcare in Gaza and its justification by Israel through what he calls “medical lawfare” as well as the mobilisation of the IHRA working definition of antisemitism—which conflates anti-Zionism and criticism of Israel with antisemitism—to silence pro-Palestinian activism, primarily on university campuses.

 

Surveillance in Africa & African Surveillance Studies (Surveillance in the Majority World Panel)

Admire Mare

Admire Mare is an Associate Professor and Head of Department: Communication and Media Studies at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa. His research interests include analyzing the intersection between technology and society, digital journalism, social media and politics, media and democracy, political communication, digital disinformation campaigns, digital surveillance, digital diplomacy, platformization of news work, media and conflict, artificial intelligence, and media start-ups and newsroom innovations. He currently leads the international research project ‘Social Media, Misinformation and Elections in Kenya and Zimbabwe’ (SoMeKeZi) funded by the Social Science Research Council (2019-2023). He is the co-author of ‘Digital Surveillance in Southern Africa: Policies, Politics and Practices’ (Cham: Springer, 2022 with Allen Munoriyarwa). He is the co-editor of ‘Digital Technologies, Elections and Campaigns in Africa’ (London: Routledge, 2023 with Duncan Omanga and Pamela Mainye).

‘Gbenga Sesan

 

‘Gbenga Sesan is the Executive Director of Paradigm Initiative (PIN), a pan-African non-profit that works on digital inclusion and rights through sub-regional offices in Cameroon, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. He studied Electronic and Electrical Engineering at the Obafemi Awolowo University and completed Executive Education Programmes at Lagos Business School, Oxford University, Harvard University, Stanford University, Santa Clara University, INSEAD and King’s College London.  ‘Gbenga was appointed by the United Nations Secretary-General, Mr António Guterres, to serve on his inaugural Internet Governance Forum (IGF) Leadership Panel in 2022 and is a member of the Swiss-based International Panel on the Information Environment that was launched at the 2023 Nobel Prize Summit. He is also a Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneur of the Year, Archbishop Desmond Tutu Leadership Fellow and Ashoka Fellow, among others. ‘Gbenga served on the Nigerian Presidential committees on Harmonization of Information Technology, Telecommunications and Broadcasting Sectors (2006) and Roadmap for the Achievement of Accelerated Universal Broadband Infrastructure and Services Provision (2013), advised the World Health Organisation (WHO) on Data Privacy, and advised the World Economic Forum on developing a rights-respecting Data Policy for businesses.

 

Juliet Nanfuka

Juliet Nanfuka is a researcher who has worked on various initiatives aimed at helping individuals and organisations advocate for improved online safety and digital inclusion practices in Africa. She is a contributing writer for the Africa Digital Rights Network (ADRN). She has also written for the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET), the Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA), and contributed to the 30 Anniversary report of the Windhoek Declaration in addition to various other publications. She is a member of the UNESCO Information for All Programme (IFAP) Working Group on Information for Development. Juliet works with the ICT policy think tank Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA).

Tony Roberts

 

Tony Roberts is a Digital Research Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), University of Sussex (UK). He has been active in the application of digital technologies for social change since 1988, when he ran digital solidarity and training projects across Central America and Southern Africa. Tony then lectured in Innovation Studies at the University of East London before founding and leading two small international development organisations for over a decade each. He stood down as CEO of the second organisation, Computer Aid International, in late 2010 to begin a PhD at the ICT4D Centre at Royal Holloway, University of London. After a period as a postdoctoral Research Fellow at the United Nations University in Macao, China, Tony joined IDS in 2016, where he now teaches and supervises postgraduate students and where his research focuses on digital inequalities, digital rights, and digital activism. Tony is the series editor of the Zed Books series produced in collaboration with the African Digital Rights Network and has co-edited books including “Digital Citizenship in Africa: Technologies of Agency and Repression”, “Digital Disinformation in Africa: Hashtag Politics, power and Propaganda”, and “Digital Surveillance in Africa: power, agency and rights”.