Teaching and supervision
The project's research is being integrated into a micro-programme offered by Europe's civic university alliance, CIVIS, entitled ‘Equitable and Just Digital Society: Developing Interdisciplinary Skills and Knowledge’ and focussing on the social challenges of digital and technological transformations.
The micro-programme encourages students to develop critical knowledge and practical skills to become interactional experts in research for an equitable and just digital society. The interdisciplinary approach covers the following themes: Sociology of Digital Society, Power and Justice in the Digital Age from an International Perspective, Digital Media, Social Participation and Life-Long Learning, Human-Computer Interaction, Design and Information Society and Integrated Research and Ethics. The course is being taught by leading experts from the following universities: the University of Glasgow (UK), University of Tubingen (Germany), University of Stockholm (Sweden), Autonomous University of Madrid (Spain), and the University of Witwatersrand (South Africa).
CIVIS has also extended its alliances to several African universities, and the research team are collaborating with the Centre for Journalism, University of the Witwatersrand, on teaching contributions to the CIVIS micro-programme.
Supervision
The principal investigator, Prof Jane Duncan, is co-supervising a doctoral level study entitled 'Public Oversight of the United Kingdom’s Investigatory Powers Bill: Lessons in Effective Oversight of Digital Surveillance for Intelligence Purposes Drawn from Comparative Cases in Southern Africa', with Prof Bridgette Wessels. The College of Social Sciences provided a scholarship to support this study as a contribution to the research project, and the scholarship was awarded to Daniele Hadi-Irandoost.