Surveillance Studies Research Center

This site is an archive of the activities of the Surveillance Studies Research Center.

 

About

The goals of the Surveillance Studies Research Center (SSRC) were to facilitate scholarship, encourage collaborative partnerships, and generate external funding as it brings together scholars and students from across the University of Kansas and beyond to study contemporary forms of surveillance, social monitoring, technology and privacy issues, and data gathering infrastructures. Their purpose was to improve our knowledge of various forms of governmental, corporate, and individualized surveillance, understand responses to and contribute to democratic debate on surveillance practices, and raise new questions and seek new ideas about surveillance.

Director

William G. Staples

William G. Staples is a Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Founding Director of the SSRC. Bill received his Ph.D. from the University of Southern California and was a Postdoctoral Fellow at UCLA. He is the author of five books and dozens of articles and chapters and recipient of the 2011 Balfour Jeffrey Higuchi-KU Endowment Achievement Award and the 2012 KU College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Craig Anthony Arnold Faculty Innovation Award. Bill was editor-in-chief of the award-winning two-volume Encyclopedia of Privacy and his most recent book, the second edition of Everyday Surveillance: Vigilance and Visibility in Postmodern Life, is considered a foundational work in the interdisciplinary field of Surveillance Studies.

Research Assistants

Sarah Colegrove

Matthew Comi

Walter Goettlich

Scott Tuttle

Sample

The University of Kansas

  • Perry Alexander, Electrical Engineering & Computer Science
  • Hannah Britton, Director, Center for the Study of Injustice (IPSR), Political Science
  • Kathryn Conrad, English
  • Drew Davidson, Electrical Engineering & Computer Science
  • Alesha Doan, School of Public Affairs & Administration, and Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies
  • Jerome Dobson, Geography
  • Ben Eggleston, Philosophy
  • Charles Epp, School of Public Affairs and Administration
  • Duncan Friend, School of Public Affairs & Administration
  • Victor Frost, Electrical Engineering & Computer Science
  • Holly T. Goerdel, School of Public Affairs and Administration
  • Marilu Goodyear, School of Public Affairs and Administration
  • Fengjun (Cathy) Li, Electrical Engineering & Computer Science
  • Don Haider-Markel, Political Science
  • Bo Luo, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
  • Steven Maynard-Moody, School of Public Affairs and Administration
  • Chris McKitterick, Director, Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction
  • Ebenezer Obadare, Sociology
  • Shannon O’Lear, Geography
  • Mariya Omelicheva, Political Science
  • Megha Ramaswamy, Preventive Medicine & Public Health and Adjunct in Sociology
  • Benjamin Rosenthal, Visual Art, Expanded Media
  • Argun Saatcioglu, School of Education and Adjunct in Sociology
  • Hyunjin Seo, Journalism
  • Barney Warf, Geography
  • Michael Williams, Journalism

National and International

  • Anders Albrechtslund, School of Communication and Culture - Information Science, Aarhus University, Aarhus, DK
  • Kirstie Ball, Director, Centre for Research into Information, Surveillance and Privacy, Open University, UK
  • Simone Browne, African & African Diaspora Studies, University of Texas, Austin
  • Simon Chesterman, Dean, Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore
  • Kevin Haggerty, Sociology, University of Alberta
  • Peter Lauritsen, School of Communication and Culture - Information Science, Aarhus University, Aarhus, DK
  • David Lyon, Director, Surveillance Studies Centre, Sociology, Queen's University, CA
  • David Marakami Wood, Surveillance Studies Centre, Sociology, Queen's University, CA
  • Gary T. Marx, Emeritus, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Torin Monahan, Department of Communications, University of North Carolina
  • James Rule, Center for the Study of Law and Society, University of California, Berkeley

2020 National Science Foundation: Division of Social and Economic Sciences and Secure & Trustworthy Cyberspace (SaTC SBE), $200,000. RAPID: Understanding the Experiences of Public Internet Users during the Novel Coronavirus Pandemic. Principal Investigator: William G. Staples, Director of the Surveillance Studies Research Center, IPSR; Co-Principal Investigator: Perry Alexander, Director of the Information and Telecommunication Technology Center at KU; and Assistant Professor Drew Davison, computer Science, KU. July 1, 2020 – June 30, 2021.



2020 National Science Foundation: Secure & Trustworthy Cyberspace (SaTC). $516,000. Safeguarding and Enhancing the Experience of Public Internet Users. National Science Foundation: Secure & Trustworthy Cyberspace (SaTC), $516,000. Principal Investigator: William G. Staples, Director of the Surveillance Studies Research Center, IPSR; Co-Principal Investigator: Perry Alexander, Director of the Information and Telecommunication Technology Center at KU; and Assistant Professor Drew Davison, computer Science, KU. April 1, 2020 – March 31, 2023.





2017 National Science Foundation: Secure & Trustworthy Cyberspace (SaTC). $300,000. EAGER: Digital Inequalities in the Heartland: Exploring the Information Security Experiences of Marginalized Internet Users. Principal Investigator: William G. Staples, Director of the Surveillance Studies Research Center, IPSR; Co-Principal Investigator: Perry Alexander, Director of the Information and Telecommunication Technology Center. October 1, 2017–September 30, 2019





2017 Aarhus University Research Foundation, DKK 80,000 ($12,766). AUFF Guest Researcher Grant. William G. Staples, Researcher & Anders Albrechtslund, Coordinator. School of Communication and Culture-Information Science. June 2017.





2015 Spencer Foundation, $43,000,"Student Information Systems in Schools: Building or Undermining Trust between Stakeholders?" Principal Investigator, William G. Staples, Professor, Sociology, Director of the Surveillance Studies Research Center, IPSR, KU; Co-Principal Investigator; Argun Saatcioglu, Associate Professor, Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, KU.





2014 Knight Foundation Prototype Fund, $35,000. "CertiDig - Using technology to make data sharing safer." Principal Investigator, Michael Williams, Director, KU Media Innovation Lab, Associate Professor, School of Journalism and Mass Communications; Co-Principal Investigator, Perry Alexander, PhD, Director, KU ITTC Professor, Electrical Engineering & Computer; Co-Principal Investigator, William Staples, PhD Professor, Sociology, Director of the Surveillance Studies Research Center, IPSR, KU.

New NSF Grant

SSRC Director Bill Staples and SSRC Faculty Affiliates Perry Alexander and Drew Davidson have been awarded a $200,000 grant from the National Science Foundation’s Division of Social and Economic Sciences and Secure & Trustworthy Cyberspace. This Rapid Response Research (RAPID) project will augment their larger project that addresses challenges faced by those who rely on public libraries for their computing needs and broadband Internet access. The novel coronavirus and COVID-19 pandemic has caused unprecedented disruption to life and brought new challenges to the lives of these individuals. The months-long shuttering of libraries has, in essence, evicted these users from their only space for broadband. These people cannot simply work from home or e-learn new skills, nor can their children shift to distance learning. As states begin the process of ending stay-at-home orders and libraries reopen, the PIs are collecting qualitative and quantitative retrospective information about what transpired during the quarantine and what is transpiring as states reopen. For more information visit the NSF website. 

Book Publication

SSRC Director Bill Staples has published a chapter entitled, “Real-Time Grade Books and the Quantified Student,” in the volume, Metric Culture: Ontologies of Self-Tracking Practices (2018) edited by Btihaj Ajana, Kings College, London.

Documentary Appearance

A documentary film, "Surveillance Culture" co-directed by Drs. Btihaj Ajana and Anders Albrechtslund features SSRC Director Bill Staples. The film was produced during Bill’s appointment as Visiting Professor at Aarhus University, DK in the summer on 2018. WATCH FILM