Introduction
The Faculty of Law and Criminology, and in particular the LSTS research group with the support of the CRiS and SMIT research groups, established the temporary "Chair in Surveillance Studies" in collaboration with the vzw Privacy Salon.
Objectives
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Stimulating and encouraging interdisciplinary research in Surveillance Studies
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Stimulating cooperation and exchange of researchers within different research groups of the VUB, other researchers and research groups in Belgium and from across the world who do research on surveillance
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Creating a knowledge center on surveillance in Belgium and exploring the possibility of establishing an interfaculty research group at the VUB
Activities
Conduct and promote original interdisciplinary scientific research on surveillance and dissemination of the research through publications (books, scientific articles, policy briefs and reports) and participation in international conferences, policy events, scientific and expert networks, exploring the possibilities for setting up an interfaculty research group and a interfaculty elective MA course, establish a seminar series in surveillance studies, contribute to science communication of scientific research on surveillance.
Coordination
The chair is coordinated by Professor Dr. Rosamunde van Brakel.
Prof. Dr Rosamunde van Brakel is research professor at the Law, Science, Technology & Society (LSTS) Research Group doing research on crime control and surveillance. In addition she manages the annual international Conference Computers, Privacy and Data Protection, co-founder of Privacy Salon and co-director of the Surveillance Studies Network.
She studied educational sciences and criminology at the KU Leuven and the University of Ottawa. Previous experiences include working as a policy assistant for the Representative of the Flemish Government in the UK and as a researcher for the Belgian Ministry of Justice. At the VUB she conducted research on freedom infringements of transport security technologies and evaluation and certification schemes for security products in the context of the EU FP7 projects SIAM and CRISP. From 2014-2015 she was seconded to work as a research fellow for the Netherlands Scientific Council for Government Policy on the project: Big Data, Privacy and Security.
Steering Committee
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Prof. Dr. Serge Gutwirth (chair), LSTS, Vrije Universiteit Brussel
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Prof. Dr. Kristel Beyens, CRiS, Vrije Universiteit Brussel
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Prof. Dr. Paul De Hert, LSTS, Vrije Universiteit Brussel/Privacy Salon
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Prof. Dr. Jo Pierson, SMIT, Vrije Universiteit Brussel
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Mr. Ulrich Seldeslachts, Privacy Salon/LSEC