| Instructors | Ian Goldberg | Jennifer Whitson |
| iang@uwaterloo.ca | jwhitson@uwaterloo.ca | |
| Seminar times | MW 10:00–11:50 am | |
| Virtual Drop-In Hours | Thursdays, 10:00–11:00 am, or by appointment | |
This interfaculty graduate seminar explores how surveillance technologies contribute to social inequality, both in Canada and globally. It examines current research into technologies that help users maintain their privacy, both online and in the physical world. Seminar readings, discussions, and projects demonstrate how successful interventions into privacy violations, censorship, and digital discrimination are interdisciplinary, and rely on the intersection of technology, policy, law, and critical theory.
This synchronous seminar will take place within the BigBlueButton (BBB) web conferencing server [a link to the online seminar room can be found on LEARN]. The seminar will primarily consist of reading, reviewing, and presenting research papers. There will be two papers assigned to each class period, selected from the following topics:
All students are to have read both of the papers before the class, and to have submitted a review for one of them (of the student's choice) by 9:00 am on the day of the lecture. Each paper will be presented to the class by one student, in a 25-minute conference-style presentation. The student presenting the paper will then lead the class in a discussion of the paper, taking 55 minutes for the presentation and discussion in total for each paper. Students should follow the presentation checklist when creating their presentations.
Students may choose to present live in the BBB room, or they may pre-record their presentations to be played back in the BBB room during their allotted time. To accommodate those students who may not be able to participate synchronously, all seminar presentations will be recorded and made available via LEARN for the following 14 days.
There are discussion forums for each of the five modules with student presentations. The forums are moderated by the instructors and are sites where you are encouraged to continue course discussions, link to current events, and discuss exemplar interdisciplinary projects, as well as find collaborators for your own terms project. As part of their participation mark, all students are expected to make meaningful contributions to each of the five forums.
Note that all times for this course are specified in Eastern Time (the timezone of Waterloo and Toronto).
Students will work in interfaculty groups of 2–4 on an original research project on a topic related to surveillance and privacy. Each group will submit a proposal and the optional team charter to the instructor no later than 19 Oct at noon. Students are strongly encouraged to produce and submit an artifact in the form of software, video submission, website or other media, generating inspiration from the projects linked to in the course readings. Near the end of term, groups will present their work to the class in a 30-minute (including five minutes for questions) conference-style presentation. In addition, by 7 Dec at 11:59 pm they will produce a workshop-quality paper, 10–15 pages in length (approximately 8,000–12,000 words), describing their artifact and project. A completed submission checklist should be submitted with the final project.
Grades for this seminar will be calculated as follows:
| 15% | Paper presentations |
| 15% | Reviews of papers |
| 15% | Class participation |
| 5% | Forum participation |
| 50% | Project |
To provide some workload flexibility, only your top 15 paper reviews and 15 class contributions will count towards your final grade.
Grades will be available after the end of term through LEARN.
The instructors reserve the right to alter your final project grade to reflect your contributions, as per your submitted group contracts.
If you cannot attend synchronous class sessions, please let us know in advance and we will provide an opportunity for you to shift the weighting of your class participation mark towards forum participation. All seminar sessions will be recorded and linked on LEARN for a period of 14 days. All other grade components will remain unchanged.
Note that students are not generally permitted to submit the same work for credit in multiple classes. For example, if a student has reviewed or presented one of the papers in another seminar class, he or she should avoid reviewing or presenting it again for this class.
The general university policy:
Academic Integrity: In order to maintain a culture of academic integrity, members of the University of Waterloo community are expected to promote honesty, trust, fairness, respect and responsibility. Check the Office of Academic Integrity's website for more information.
All members of the UW community are expected to hold to the highest standard of academic integrity in their studies, teaching, and research. This site explains why academic integrity is important and how students can avoid academic misconduct. It also identifies resources available on campus for students and faculty to help achieve academic integrity in — and out — of the classroom.
Grievance: A student who believes that a decision affecting some aspect of his/her university life has been unfair or unreasonable may have grounds for initiating a grievance. Read Policy 70 — Student Petitions and Grievances, Section 4. When in doubt please be certain to contact the department's administrative assistant who will provide further assistance.
Discipline: A student is expected to know what constitutes academic integrity, to avoid committing academic offenses, and to take responsibility for his/her actions. Check the Office of Academic Integrity for more information. A student who is unsure whether an action constitutes an offense, or who needs help in learning how to avoid offenses (e.g., plagiarism, cheating) or about "rules" for group work/collaboration should seek guidance from the course professor, academic advisor, or the Undergraduate Associate Dean. For information on categories of offenses and types of penalties, students should refer to Policy 71 — Student Discipline. For typical penalties, check Guidelines for the Assessment of Penalties.
Avoiding Academic Offenses: Most students are unaware of the line between acceptable and unacceptable academic behaviour, especially when discussing assignments with classmates and using the work of other students. For information on commonly misunderstood academic offenses and how to avoid them, students should refer to the Office of Academic Integrity's site on Academic Misconduct and the Faculty of Mathematics Cheating and Student Academic Discipline Policy.
Appeals: A decision made or penalty imposed under Policy 70, Student Petitions and Grievances (other than a petition) or Policy 71, Student Discipline may be appealed if there is a ground. A student who believes he/she has a ground for an appeal should refer to Policy 72, Student Appeals.
AccessAbility Services, located in Needles Hall, Room 1401, collaborates with all academic departments to arrange appropriate accommodations for students with disabilities without compromising the academic integrity of the curriculum. If you require academic accommodations to lessen the impact of your disability, please register with AccessAbility at the beginning of each academic term.
All of us need a support system. We encourage you to seek out mental health supports when they are needed. Please reach out to Campus Wellness and Counselling Services.
We understand that these circumstances can be troubling, and you may need to speak with someone for emotional support. Good2Talk is a post-secondary student helpline based in Ontario, Canada that is available to all students.
We acknowledge that we live and work on the traditional territory of the Attawandaron (Neutral), Anishinaabeg, and Haudenosaunee peoples. The University of Waterloo is situated on the Haldimand Tract, the land promised to the Six Nations that includes ten kilometres on each side of the Grand River.