Information history seminar: Histories of surveillance
This second seminar about information history is dedicated to surveillance. David Lyon, prominent scholar of surveillance studies, has over the years argued that all societies relying on communication and information technologies for administrative and control processes are surveillance societies. Yet, the English historian, Edward Higgs warns against a superficial equation between gathering of information and surveillance historically.
In the new book: Histories of surveillance from Antiquity to the Digital Era. The Eyes and Ears of Power (Routledge), edited by Andreas Marklund and Laura Skouvig, historians from different parts of the world examine how differently surveillance regimes have relied on information, have produced information and dreamt of accessing information. The authors, in short, explore surveillance in different periods and cultures.
The seminar is turned into a book launch where some of the authors present their chapters and discuss some of the questions crossing the chapters of the book.
Programme
| 14:00 | Welcome and introduction to the book | Laura Skouvig (University of Copenhagen) |
| 14:15 | Big data in early China: population surveillance in the early Chines empires | Rebecca Robinson (Hong Kong Baptist University) |
| 14:20 | “Consciences are not to be forced, but to bee Wonne”: the inward turn in Elizabethan homiletic discourse and the legal debate over the ex officio oath in the Court of High Commission, 1570-1593 | Anni Haahr Henriksen, PRIVACY (University of Copenhagen) |
| 14:25 | Convict Surveillance and reform in theory and practice. Jeremy Bentham vs New South Wales | Matt Allen (University of New England) |
| 14:30 | Securing the state: The First World Wat and the birth of the modern surveillance state in Scandinavia | Nik Brandal (Björknes University College), Eirik Brazier (University of Southeast Norway) and Ola Teige (Volda University College) |
| 14:35 | Citizen informants, glitches in the system, and the limits of collaboration: Eastern experiences in the Cold War Era | Carol Anne Costabile-Heming (University of North Texas), Valentina Glajar (University of Texas State University) and Alison Lewis (University of Melbourne) |
| 14:40 | A very short break | |
| 14:45 | Panel discussion moderated by Andreas Marklund (ENIGMA) | |
| 15:10 | Discussion and questions from the audience |
Registration
Email Laura Skouvig no later than 11 October, and you will receive a Zoom-link + Zoom guidelines prior to the 14 October.
You may circulate the programme – but please refrain from any circulation of the Zoom link.