[DATAGOV Core] Visits & propositions (from our last team meeting)

[Stefania Milan]

Dear all
There was an item we didn’t have time to discuss in our last team meeting, but it can be done online.

Item was: Updates and questions (meeting with potential South African partner, visit in May by Diletta Huyskes, request to host Surveillance Studies conference next year, collaboration with Setup)


  *   (Past) visit by Tanja Bosch<https://humanities.uct.ac.za/cfms/cfms/contacts/tanja-bosch>, prof at the University of Cape Town; SA-UK SARChI Bilateral Research Chair in Digital Media Sociology and Chair of the African Digital Rights Network<http://africandigitalrightsnetwork.org>. Recently co-authored Feminist Digital Citizenship in Africa<https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/feminist-digital-citizenship-in-africa-9781350500488/>/. Tanja visited of February 11; I tried to involve Giulia (the only one in town!) but in the end it was a quick, messy (but very exciting) meeting. I liked very much meeting Tanja, and I respect her work and loved the vibe! (We also clicked on some common sport passion eheh). I shared with her the project description for DATAGOV, and she suggested to partner with us to (and I quote from her email): "have a small team on the ground in South Africa collect the data for the SA part of the project? Such a team could be managed by me and work from out of the lab. I do think having a South African person/researcher lead the SA component brings situated knowledge of local data infrastructures and everyday practices of data use as well as existing networks with civil society etc. I am not sure whether your budget has room for a SA based postdoc which here is costed at around 20k euro per annum. Alternative budget for a local research assistant is costed at around 15 euros per hour. We could also build a team that comprises researchers from another university for example in Johannesburg to avoid flight costs for interviews.”. Now, to take this home the best would be to acquire external funds, since a change of plan for an ERC grant equals a cumbersome, tedious, terrifying grant amendment. I put it here for future discussion. I want to reassure you that no one’s job in the team is under threat.


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(Future) visit by Diletta Huyskes<https://www.dilettahuyskes.eu>. Diletta is an Italian Dutch scholar and entrepreneur active in our domain.  I got to know her because I was the opponent in her PhD thesis defense at the University of Milan ("Constructing Automated Societies. Socio-Cultural Determinants and Impacts of Automated Decision-Making in Public Services”<https://air.unimi.it/handle/2434/1163995>, 2025, where she compared Italy and the Netherlands; if curious, we can ask whether she is ok with sharing). She will be visiting us in May 4-29. Let’s plan some fun stuff.
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(Future) visit by Rafael Grohmann<https://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/acm/rafael-grohmann>. Rafael is a Brazilian working out of the University Toronto Scarborough. He is a scholar of digital labour and the platform economy but has an interest in decolonizing epistemologies ect. We finally met in person during my recent visit in Brazil, but we have known each other for quite some time. Great energy! For the month of June, he will be based at ZeMKI, at the University of Bremen (Germany), a somewhat short train ride from Amsterdam, and he reached out because he would love to visit us. Let’s think about a fun activity to involve him (perhaps with GDC)
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Finally, the Surveillance Studies Conference. A few weeks ago, Bryce and Azadeh (Meg’s future supervisor!) reached out to me and Marjolein Lanzig (one of the speakers in our kick-off, from the Philosophy dept) to see whether the upcoming Lille conference could be relocated to Amsterdam on account of repression of public speech fears. Luckily there was no need to do so. But then they came back with the following email, which I copy below. How do people feel about this?

To be discussed at the upcoming team meeting!
Stefania

From: Bryce Newell <bcnewell at uoregon.edu>
Date: Monday, 9 February 2026 at 20:35
To: Marjolein Lanzing <m.lanzing at uva.nl>, Stefania Milan <S.Milan at uva.nl>
Subject: Re: Inquiry about SSN conference

Dear Stefania and Marjolein,

We have now confirmed that SSN2026 will take place in Lille as planned. Happily, we have confirmation that our host, the Université Catholique de Lille, will not impose nor be subject to censorship regarding the subject matter of conference programming.

However, we are also re-distributing our ongoing call for expressions of interest in hosting future SSN conferences (see the text of that below my signature line). We would welcome an expression of interest from you and your institution or research center, if you have an interest in hosting the conference in 2028 or beyond. If you would like to chat about what this might require, etc., please reach out to me and I'd be happy to answer questions or to hop on a video call to discuss.

Best,
Bryce


Call for Interest in Hosting Future SSN Conferences
The Surveillance Studies Network (SSN) and Surveillance & Society are seeking Expressions of Interest for hosting our biennial conference in 2028, 2030, and beyond.

We will accept Expressions of Interest on a rolling basis, with the aim to announce the host venue of SSN2028 at the SSN2026 conference in June 2026, in Lille, France. Those interested in hosting the conference in 2028 should submit an initial Expression of Interest by the end of March 2026. We are looking for universities and research institutes with accessible venues that can host a 3-day conference for at least 300 people, with at least 6 streams of parallel sessions each day, and an additional doctoral colloquium preceding the main conference (on Day 0).

Please note that SSN conferences have typically been held in Europe, and we are primarily seeking Expressions of Interest from institutions in the European area. However, we are also looking to expand opportunities for surveillance-related conferences and workshops in other parts of the world in odd-numbered years (e.g., 2027, 2029) in between our biennial flagship conferences. We welcome expressions of interest for these opportunities as well. The biennial SSN conference helps to fund SSN, a UK-registered educational charity, which owns and publishes Surveillance & Society.

Please send all EoIs to Bryce Newell at bcnewell <at> uoregon <dot> edu.


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