The Queen's University Department of Political Studies Graduate Students Association (PSGSA) present:

The 2023 PSGSA Graduate Conference

"Emerging Technologies in the Age of Digital Censorship, Surveillance, and Repression"

Keynote speakers: Dr. Seva Gunitsky and Col Ryan Jurkowski

Monday, June 26th | 9:00AM – 5:30PM
Robert Sutherland Hall (138 Union Street, Kingston) Room 202 OR via Zoom
*Lunch provided

This event is co-sponsored by MINDS (Mobilizing Insights in Defence and Security), the Department of Political Studies, the Canadian Opinion Research Archive (CORA), the Centre for International and Defence Policy (CIDP), the Institute of Intergovernmental Relations (IIGR), and the Centre for the Study of Democracy and Diversity (CSDD).  

The conference program is available here! 

The proliferation of new and emerging technologies by state and non-state actors has significantly changed global and domestic politics in the 21st century. From the Arab Spring to the more recent Hashtag protests mediated from the digital spaces, mass mobilization for non-violent actions is aimed at holding leaders accountable, demanding social changes, making claims for reforms and overhauling existing societal structures, systems, and institutions.

The aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic has further highlighted the need to better harness the powers of emerging technologies to address global and local challenges. On one hand, the proliferation of emerging technologies offers high hopes for enhancing democratisation and promoting human rights through non-violent collective actions and the international exposure of political repression. On the other hand, as with several examples across the world, digital technologies can also be a tool for liberal and authoritarian governments to punish critical voices and dissenters by converting such technologies into tools of state censorship, disinformation, surveillance, and repression. Thus, while digital technologies have the potential to positively improve governance structures and human rights, repressive and weak governments have used technologies against their citizens, to prevent or more easily disperse political rallies and protests by extensively monitoring the digital communications of social movements.

Digital technologies are also changing how we approach, plan, and integrate security operations. For example, they are vital in the sphere of Command, Control, Communication, Computers, Intelligence, Information, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance systems (C4I2R). The situational understanding provided by these emerging technologies underpins security operations, from providing situational awareness to gathering intelligence and making informed decisions. Utilizing these emerging technologies has the potential to enhance global development.

Dr. Seva Gunitsky Biography:

Dr. Seva Gunitsky is an associate professor of political science at the University of Toronto. He is the author of Aftershocks: Great Powers and Domestic Reforms in the Twentieth Century (Princeton University Press), selected by Foreign Affairs as one of the best books of 2017. Some of his work has appeared in International Organization, International Studies Quarterly, International Theory, and Perspectives on Politics, as well as popular outlets like Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The Washington Post, The New Republic, and others.

Col Ryan Jurkowski Biography:

Colonel Ryan Jurkowski joined the Canadian Armed Forces as a Sapper in 1993 with 3 Field Engineer Squadron prior to receiving his commission and joining the Cameron Highlanders of Ottawa. Colonel Jurkowski then proudly served with the Van Doos from 1997-1999 prior to changing his Regimental Affiliation to the PPCLI in 1999.

Regimental service included participation in various domestic operations with tours to Bosnia from 1999-2001 as the Anti-Armour Platoon Commander, Afghanistan in 2006 and 2009-2010 in Combat Teams, in Kuwait from 2014-2015 as the Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve DCJ5, and most recently in Iraq and Kuwait with Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve as the Director of Strategic Communications from 2021-2022.

Staff positions were with the Joint Staff under the then-DCDS Group as the Africa Operations Desk Officer from 2002-2005, Executive Assistant to Commander 3rd Cdn Div from 2007-2008, Executive Assistant to the Assistant Chief of Staff J5 in NATO’s Joint Force Command Brunssum from 2011-2013, Chief of Canadian Army Capability Integration at the Canadian Army Doctrine and Training Centre from 2013-2014, Assistant Chief of Staff at the Canadian Army Doctrine and Training Centre from 2014-2015, the J3 at the 1st Cdn Div from 2017-2018, the Director of Programmes at the Canadian Forces College from 2018-2020, and the Canadian Defence Academy Chief of Staff from 2020-2021. Colonel Jurkowski had the privilege to command the 5th Cdn Div Training Centre from 2015-2017.

Colonel Jurkowski is currently a Visiting Defence Fellow at Queen's University. In addition to national and international commendations, Colonel Jurkowski has been awarded the US Joint Service Commendation Medal, a Mention-in-Dispatch, and the Meritorious Service Medal. Colonel Jurkowski has a Masters in Defence Studies.

The conference will be in a hybrid format. Participants can either join in-person at Queen’s University or online via Zoom.

2023 Political Studies Graduate Students Association (PSGSA) Graduate Conference | June 26, 2023

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS | Deadline: Monday, May 15, 2023 

Emerging Technologies in the Age of Digital Censorship, Surveillance, and Repression

The proliferation of new and emerging technologies by state and non-state actors has significantly changed global and domestic politics in the 21st century. From the Arab Spring to the more recent Hashtag protests mediated from the digital spaces, mass mobilization for non-violent actions is aimed at holding leaders accountable, demanding social changes, making claims for reforms and overhauling existing societal structures, systems, and institutions.

The aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic has further highlighted the need to better harness the powers of emerging technologies to address global and local challenges. On one hand, the proliferation of emerging technologies offers high hopes for enhancing democratisation and promoting human rights through non-violent collective actions and the international exposure of political repression. On the other hand, as with several examples across the world, digital technologies can also be a tool for liberal and authoritarian governments to punish critical voices and dissenters by converting such technologies into tools of state censorship, disinformation, surveillance, and repression. Thus, while digital technologies have the potential to positively improve governance structures and human rights, repressive and weak governments have used technologies against their citizens, to prevent or more easily disperse political rallies and protests by extensively monitoring the digital communications of social movements.

Digital technologies are also changing how we approach, plan, and integrate security operations. For example, they are vital in the sphere of Command, Control, Communication, Computers, Intelligence, Information, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance systems (C4I2R). The situational understanding provided by these emerging technologies underpins security operations, from providing situational awareness to gathering intelligence and making informed decisions. Utilizing these emerging technologies has the potential to enhance global development.

We are inviting submissions from graduate students on topics that interrogate the use of emerging technologies by different political actors. The conference will be in a hybrid format. Participants can either join in-person at Queen’s University or online via Zoom.

The keynote speaker will be Dr. Seva Gunitsky (Associate Professor, University of Toronto).

Some Proposed Sub-topics:

● Theoretical Explorations of Emerging Technologies and Digital Authoritarianism

● Surveillance and Repression in a Digital Age

● Technology, Human Rights and Repression

● Digital Censorship, Repression, and Democracy

● Online Activism in the Age of Surveillance

● Digital Technology and National Security

Please submit an abstract of no more than 250 words to: psgsaconference2023@gmail.com. Proposals that do not necessarily fit within the proposed sub-topics will also be considered.

The Department of Political Studies Graduate Students' Association are pleased to host:

Jonathan Pedneault - Deputy Leader, Green Party of Canada

"Meeting Global Challenges: Canada’s Responsibilities in a Chaotic World" 

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Thursday, March 30, 2023 

2:30-4:30 PM

Robert Sutherland Hall | Room 202

Light refreshments served

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Jonathan Pedneault's Biography:

At age 17, Jonathan Pedneault smuggled himself into Darfur in the back of a pick-up truck filled with rebels to document this deadly rights and environmental crisis for a CBC/Radio-Canada documentary. By then, he had spent two years giving conferences to fellow students about genocide and Canada’s responsibility to prevent mass atrocities. That was his first foray into foreign reporting.

The single son of a single mom, Jonathan was raised in poorer suburbs of Montreal. An early understanding of how privileged he was to be born Canadian impacted everything he later set about to do. For Jonathan, privilege comes with immense responsibilities. And he is one to take responsibility seriously. 

Over the next fifteen years, Jonathan worked to report on crises throughout the world and advocate for greater accountability and global social justice.

Through his work, Jonathan interviewed fishermen in Somalia who had turned to piracy to fight off illegal fishing, documented sexual abuses by UN peacekeepers in the Central African Republic, witnessed failed revolutions in Egypt and Libya and documented excessive force by police in places as diverse as Chile, Belarus and the United States. 

With two years spent living on Svalbard, in the high arctic, and years reporting from places affected by extreme weather events such as the Sahel and Central Asia or with refugees leaving drought and hurricane affected Central America to face abuses at southern US borders, Jonathan has been in the belly of the climate beast. He knows what’s coming. And why we need to urgently get our act together.

Jonathan believes the Green Party of Canada is the only party that has shown the morale courage and strength needed to face the coming crises.

Please join us for the Department of Political Studies Honours Thesis Colloquium!

 

Monday, April 3, 2023 

1:00-4:15 PM

Robert Sutherland Hall | Room 202

Light refreshments served

 

Students will present for 10-12 minutes, followed by a Q&A session led by a graduate student discussant. Please consider attending to support the excellent research conducted by our undergraduate students!

 

Panel 1 | 1:00-2:30 PM | International Relations, Comparative Related

“Changing trends in the Taiwan-strait”

Presenter: Kassandra Choi | Discussant: Émile Lambert-Deslandes

“Women as Weapons, Women as People: Understanding the Militarization of Ukraine’s WPS Agenda”

Presenter: Morgan Fox | Discussant: Isabella Aung

“The Anti-Immigrant Rhetoric Used by Donald Trump and Boris Johnson and its Cooptation of the British and American Public”

Presenter: Jordan McEwen | Discussant: Jana Walkowski

“EU Enlargement as a Security Strategy: Analyzing the Power and Potential of Ukrainian Accession”

Presenter: Lauren Zweerink | Discussant: Jana Walkowski

 

2:30 Coffee Break (light refreshments will be served)

 

Panel 2 | 2:45-4:15 PM | Canadian Politics Related

“Waiting for the Penny to Drop: Investigating the Potential for a Universal Basic Income in Canada through the Lens of Intimate Partner Violence”

Presenter: Ariel Burgess | Discussant: Kaitie Jourdeuil

“Are LGBTQ+ Identified Federal Candidates at a Disadvantage?: An Examination of Campaign Finance”

Presenter: Kate Burke Pellizzari | Discussant: Elizabeth McCallion

“The Pragmatist Problem: Exploring Ideological Alternatives in Canadian Partisanship”

Presenter: Caitlyn Jenkins | Discussant: Elizabeth McCallion

“Media or Government: Who Took the Lead in Shaping the Public Narrative on 9/11 and the Russian Invasion of Ukraine”

Presenter: Georgia Papathanasakis | Discussant: Émile Lambert-Deslandes

The Department of Political Studies, the Centre for International and Defence Policy, and the School of Policy Studies Present:

Lt-General (ret'd) the Honourable Andrew Leslie

"Russia's War in Ukraine: Why it started, how it's going, what does it mean for the rest of us, Canada's role in comparison to others, and what might happen next"

Thursday, March 23, 2023 | 12:30-1:30 PM

Robert Sutherland Hall, Room 202 | 138 Union Street, Kingston

A light lunch will be served!

 

Biography: 

Lt-General (ret’d) the Honourable Andrew Leslie, PC, CMM, MSC, MSM, CD, BA, MA, PhD (hc) was a soldier and led the 57,000 people in the Canadian Army in fires, floods, earthquakes, security missions, peacekeeping and war (Cyprus, Germany, Croatia, Serbia, Afghanistan and elsewhere), being awarded numerous national and international honours and decorations. He has also been a Senior Vice President of a very large multinational corporation, a Federal Member of Parliament, the Chief Government Whip, the Parliamentary Secretary focused on Canada-US Relations and Trade during the time of NAFTA and was included on varied Federal cabinet committees. He now sits on several corporate boards and speaks on international affairs, leadership, transformation, governance, and crisis response. He was educated at Ottawa University (BA), the Royal Military College (MA) where he was also conferred a Doctorate, various Military Staff Colleges, and both the Harvard Business School and the Rotman School of Business.