Tag: School of Law & Criminology

On 20 February 2019, a conference on the right to privacy was organised at the University of Greenwich, with the support of Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA). Subsequent to the conference, Dr Aysem Diker Vanberg and Dr Özgür Heval Çɪnar from School of Law and Criminology prepared a special issue on `The right to privacy in the digital age: different perspectives around the globe` which has now been published in the International Journal of Human Rights (Vol 25, Issue 1).

The right to privacy is one of the rights enshrined in international human rights law. However, with the increasing digitalisation of modern life, protecting one’s privacy has become more complicated, with both state and non-state organisations making frequent interventions in citizens’ private lives. In this special issue they focus on the right to privacy in the digital age with a view to see how it is implemented across the globe in different jurisdictions. This special issue is very unique as there have not been any publications with similar content covering the issue as extensively, which is a first in this regard. Links to each of the articles in the special issue are below, with contributions from the School of Law and Criminology’s Dr Kristian Humble, Dr Aysem Diker Vanberg, and Dr Özgür Heval Çɪnar:

October 22nd marked the launch of the Gender, Deviance and Society (GDS) research group at the University of Greenwich and we marked the event with an online webinar.

Drawing together the research expertise of its leaders – Dr Stacy Banwell, Dr Alexandra Fanghanel, Dr Camille Stengel and Dr Giulia Zampini – GDS aims to push forward research innovation in gender-related matters through interdisciplinary approaches, horizontal leadership, and mentoring. We want to create a platform for all members of the group at all stages of their scholarship and research to come together and learn from each other.

The GDS launch focused on celebrating the publication of Dr Banwell’s monograph Gender and the Violence(s) of War and Armed Conflict: More Dangerous to be a Woman? The book is now out as an open access publication on Emerald Publishing. An animation of Dr Banwell’s book can be viewed here.

For this occasion, we were excited to be able to read one of our members’ work in full (academics struggle to find time to read these days, or at least to read slowly). We always support each other’s achievements, but we seldom have time to really dig deep into each other’s work and ideas, so reading Dr Banwell’s work was a privilege. And beyond that, witnessing her ideas come to life in the discussion and be delivered with enthusiasm and intellectual prowess was very exciting.

Venturing into the world of webinars for the first time posed some technical challenges, which we met with laughter and jokes (and some frantic emails and Team and WhatsApp messaging back and forth, which webinar chair Dr Stengel managed with an exemplary poker face).

Overall, we succeeded in keeping our audience during the 45 minutes question and answer-style webinar, where Dr Fanghanel and Dr Zampini “grilled” Dr Banwell with questions about her book. This was smoothly followed by some thought-provoking questions from the audience.

It was great to see a heterogeneous audience made up of students as well as scholars from other disciplines. This reflects the aims and objectives of the group to bring together scholars from different disciplines through affiliate membership and collaborations, as well as enabling research opportunities for young scholars.

GDS is planning an event in the spring of 2021 to discuss the soon-to-be published SAGE textbook Sex and Crime.

To join the group, or find out more, contact A.n.d.fanghanel@gre.ac.uk

We may have been locked down for the Spring and Summer but that has not hindered the research activities of our resident lawyers and criminologists. There have been a number of exciting publications launched over recent months and here is a round-up of some of the highlights, with links to each publication included.

A new chapter has been published by Dr Camille Stengel titled ‘Creating safe spaces in dangerous places: ‘Chicks Day’ for women who inject drugs in Budapest, Hungary‘. Published by Routledge, this chapter forms part of an interdisciplinary collection examining the role played by alcohol, tobacco and other drugs in framing certain groups as ‘dangerous’.

Dr Alexandra Fanghanel has authored a new article called ‘On Being Ugly in Public: The Politics of the Grotesque in Naked Protests‘ . Published in Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy, this article continues Alex’s innovative work around sexualised naked protest in public spaces.

Prof Olga Martin-Ortega and the Business, Human Rights and the Environment research group continue their march towards revolutionising the electronics industry in collaboration with the GoodElectronics Network and the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations. Their recently published report proposes a new approach to the urgent need for disclosure and transparency in the global electronics industry, and you can read more about it here.

Dr Melissa Pepper has recently co-authored the article ‘Exploring the Role and Contribution of Police Support Volunteers in an English Constabulary‘. Published in Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice, Melissa’s paper can be accessed here.

Perhaps one of the most topical publications in our update comes from Dr Maria Kaspersson who has recently contributed a chapter called ‘‘You Always Hurt the One You Love’: Homicide in a Domestic Context‘ to the edited collection ‘Why We Kill: Understanding Violence Across Cultures and Disciplines’.

Finally, if audio content is what you’re here for then Dr Louise Hewitt has got you covered. Louise has recently launched her brand new Innocence Project London podcast where you can find an honest account of the organisation, how important their work is to a clinical legal education, and why it matters. You can find it here, and make sure you subscribe to catch every episode.

There is little doubt over the great potential of melding artificial intelligence with digital epidemiology to combat Covid19 effectively: the study of large amounts of online published data ranging from social media posts to trending hashtags can aid health officials in their task to track outbreaks quickly and target responses. At the same time, large technology companies hold a wealth of unpublished information (private posts, search keywords, location and interaction data with contacts) that could help epidemiologists further. To this end, LETS Lab at the School of Law and Criminology has joined forces with a network of organisations and researchers in an open letter urging social media and content sharing platforms to archive material for research.

According to LETS Director, Dr Argyro Karanasiou, the lockdown policies imposed globally have boosted an unprecedented flow of information via online platforms used for social purposes. At the same time the ever familiar danger of spreading misinformation online is now met with solely automated means of moderating content online, which needs to be transparent and audible as it may well compromise free speech and privacy. The letter urges tech giants to archive such data so that they can be studied further “to evaluate the macro and micro level consequences of relying on automation to moderate content in a complex and evolving information environment. (…) It is essential that platforms preserve this data so that it can be made available to researchers and journalists and included in your transparency reports. The data will be invaluable to those working in public health, human rights, science and academia. It will be crucial to develop safeguards to address the privacy issues raised by new or longer data retention and by the sharing of information with third parties, but the need for immediate preservation is urgent.” 

The open letter has been published by Article19 and can be viewed here.

Congratulations to Dr Argyro Karanasiou for being an active voice and stealing the spotlight!