INF2124H- Surveillance and Identity - Fall 2016

Class meeting time: Tuesdays, 9:00am 12:00pm

Classroom: Claude Bissell Building (BL) 728
Instructor: Kenzie Burchell
Contact information: kenzie.burchell@utoronto.ca
Office hours: Tuesdays 14:00-16:00pm, or by appointment
Office: Claude Bissell Building (BL) 650
Course Description:
To understand surveillance is to understand both the history of information and of identity. A more
traditional surveillance concerns subjects, often individuals as they populate sites and territories, but for
constructs, where data is drawn from process and places, from classifications and rules for the
proscription of present relations and future actions. As individuals are processed and pushed together
or apart, fundamental edicts of social organization are rewritten. Surveillance, whether motivated by
care or control, becomes a process of knowledge production, but also of identity production.
When the political, economic, and social dimensions of surveillance are taken into account the
implications for individuals, communities, and society are tantamount. This course examines divergent
theoretical traditions of surveillance, while engaging with the various sites, scales, contexts and
practices of where surveillance and identity intertwine.
Course Objectives:
The goal of this course is to provide student with the tools to examine and critically assess the social,
political, and economic processes in changing context of surveillance and technology, while maintaining
an awareness of the implications for the individuals and publics.
Course Learning Outcomes:
Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

To locate, follow, and understand the origins of surveillance in contemporary society.

To unpack and employ the theoretical frameworks concerning surveillance and identity.
To assess and examine what drives surveillance across a variety of sites, scales, and contexts.
To examine the effects of surveillance on individuals, groups, and social organization.
To analyze case studies for their potential contributions to wider surveillance discourses.

The knowledge and analytical skill developed during the INF2124H module will contribute to the
student understanding and discursive abilities to navigate the fundamental concepts, and theories of
information studies such that they can both respond to the changing role of information practices in
society (Program Outcome One) and in the discipline (Program Outcome Three and Four). The
development of critical abilities with regard to the changing implications of surveillance technology and
information will contribute to students ability to responsibly exercise economic, cultural and social
leadership (Program Outcome Two)

Assignment Mechanisms:
This is a seminar and, as such, preparation and participation are required. In addition to attending class
and engaging critically with the readings, there are as outlined below the marking scheme. Final grades
will be assessed based on the performance of each task/assignment according to the weighting below.
Discussion Questions Forum
Class Participation and Presentation
Critical Film/Theory Review
Reading List Wiki
Term Paper Prospectus
Term Paper

10% (Due every Sunday at midnight)

10%
20% (Due Oct. 11
in Class)
5% (Due Nov. 1
Blackboard)
15% (Due Nov. 1
in Class)
40% (Due Date Dec 6 in Class)

Participation:
Attend and actively engage in class activities, discussion, and presentations. Participation marks are
determined not only be participation in class activities, but also preparedness for participation in class
activities (i.e. Do the readings please!).
Presentation:
This presentation is not just presentation; it is also the facilitation of a discussion with your classmates.
Provide a brief (less than five minutes) overview of the reading to the class, and then lead group
members through a discussion based on your own questions and those of your classmates, as gleaned
from the discussion forum for that week. If you are clearly not prepared for, or are absent on, your
presentation date (without valid reason) then 5% of your class participation marks will be deducted.
Discussion Questions Forum:
Prior to every class (via Blackboard with a deadline for Sunday at midnight 00:00), post three (3)
questions for discussion related to the readings for that week. Feel free to comment on, or respond to,
question of other students as semester continues. These will be used the next day in class to a) address
misconceptions or concerns and b) to stimulate and guide class discussions. Please bring a copy of these
questions to class with you.
Reading List Wiki:
Throughout the semester contribute (via Blackboard with a deadline of Nov. 1) to the course reading
list with relevant and unique bibliographic references, accompanied by a short (2-3 sentences) overview
of the reading and a link. The reading list will be thematically organized, and alphabetized within each
theme. You must submit a minimum of five (5) readings across two (2) themes.
Critical Film/Theory Review:
Write a short critical reading paper analyzing on of the suggested surveillance films (or another if
cleared with the instructor) using one of the major theoretical concepts from the first three weeks. IT
will be (1200-1700 words) due in class in Week 5. Questions/Format will be set by the Instructor in
Week Three. This will be due IN CLASS on October 11 at the beginning of class.
Term Paper Prospectus and Final Term Paper:

Develop a term paper prospectus and annotated bibliography, due IN-CLASS on November 1.
Write a 3000-4000 word term paper, due IN-CLASS on DEC 6, critically examining a
particular issue, practice, or theory related to surveillance and identity.
2

Course Overview and Timetable:1

Part one:
Week One:
Week Two:
Week Three:
Week Four:

Sept. 13
Sept. 20
Sept. 27
Oct. 4

Theory
Histories of Information and Control
Creating Social Categories
Technologies of Sorting and Classification
Film Screening (ROOM CHANGE: BL 224/225)

Part two:
Week Five:
Week Six:

Cultures of the Visibility and the Self

Oct. 11 DUE DATE
Privacy, Self-Disclosure, and Social Surveillance
Oct. 18
Exposure, Empowerment and Testimony

Part three:
Week Seven:
Week Eight:

Data and Online Economies of Interaction

Oct. 25
Data-mining and the Online Political Economy
Nov. 1 DUE DATE
Algorithms, Interfaces and Code

Part four:
Week Nine:
Week Ten:

Nov. 15
Nov. 22

Controlling Spaces within the State

Gaming, Surveillance and Play
Security, Policing and Spatial Control

Part five:
Beyond State Borders
Week Eleven: Nov. 29
War, Surveillance, and Communication
Week Twelve: Dec. 6 DUE DATE
The Body, the Witness, and the Lens

General Reference Reading (Beyond the scheduled readings in Syllabus):

Ball, K., Haggerty, K. D., & Lyon, D. (Eds.). (2012). Routledge handbook of surveillance studies. London
and New York: Routledge.
Bennett, C. J., Haggerty, K. D., Lyon, D., & Steeves, V. (2014). Transparent Lives: Surveillance in
Canada. Edmonton: Athabasca University Press.
Dubrofsky, R. E., & Magnet, S. A. (Eds.). (2015). Feminist Surveillance Studies. Durham and London:
Duke University Press.
Hier, S., & Greenberg, J. (Eds.). (2007). The surveillance studies reader. New York: McGraw-Hill
International.
Lyon, D. (Ed.). (2006). Theorizing surveillance: The panopticon and beyond. New York: Routledge.
Lyon, D. (2007). Surveillance studies: An overview. Cambridge: Polity.
Lyon, D., & Bauman, Z. (2013). Liquid surveillance: A conversation. Cambridge, Malden: Polity.
Meulen, E. V. D., & Heynen, R. (Eds.). (2016). Expanding the Gaze: Gender and the Politics of Surveillance.
University of Toronto Press: Toronto.

Please Note: The Instructor reserves the right to alter the organization of the course to better suite the course objectives
and student needs. Readings will be revised, adjusted, deleted, and added as the Instructor sees fit.
3

Part One: Theory

Background Reading:
Foucault, M. (1977). Discipline and punish: The birth of the prison. New York: Random House. [p.p. 3-31,
135-231]
Foucault, M. (1978). History of Sexuality: Volume 1. New York: Pantheon. [p.p. 1-102, 135-159]
Week One:

Histories of Information and Control

Beniger, J. (2009). The control revolution: Technological and economic origins of the information society.
Harvard University Press. [Introduction]
Week Two:

Creating Social Categories

Hacking, I. (1990). The taming of chance. Cambridge: CUP. [Chapter 1: The Argument]
Hacking, I. (1999). Making up people. In T. C. Heller, M. Sosna, & D. E. Wellbery (Eds.),
Reconstructing Individualism: Autonomy, Individuality, and the Self in Western Thought (pp. 222-236).
Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Star, S. L., & Bowker, G. C. (1999). Sorting things out: Classification and its consequences. Cambridge,
MA: MIT Press. [Please Read the Introduction "To Classify is Human" and Chapter 1 "Some Tricks of
the Trade in Analyzing Classification"]
Week Three:

Technologies of Sorting and Classification

Elmer, G. (2012). Panopticon-discipline-control. In K. Ball, K. Haggerty, & D. Lyon (Eds.), Routledge

Handbook of Surveillance Studies (pp. 21-29). London and New York: Routledge.
Haggerty, K. D., & Ericson, R. V. (2000). The surveillant assemblage. The British Journal of sociology,
51(4), 605-622.
Haggerty, K. D. (2006). Tear down the walls: on demolishing the panopticon. Lyon, D. (Ed.).
Theorizing surveillance: The panopticon and beyond, New York: Routledge 23-45.
Deleuze, G. (1992). Postscript on the Societies of Control. October, 59, 3-7.
Lyon, D. (2002). Surveillance as social sorting: Computer Codes and Mobile Bodies. In D. Lyon (Ed.),
Surveillance as social sorting: Privacy, risk and automated discrimination (pp. 13-30). New York: Routledge.
Week Four:

FILM SCREENING (ROOM CHANGE: BL 224/225)

Part Two: Cultures of the Visibility and the Self

Background Reading:
Goffman, E. (1959). The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. New York, NY: Doubleday. [Introduction,
Ch. 1,2]
Week Five:

Privacy, Self-Disclosure, and Social Surveillance

Hacking, I. (2004). Between Michel Foucault and Erving Goffman: Between discourse in the abstract
and face-to-face interaction. Economy and Society, 33(3), 277-302.
Marwick, A. (2012). The public domain: surveillance in everyday life. Surveillance & Society, 9(4), 378393.
Rothenbuhler, E. W. (2005). The Church of the Cult of the Individual. In E. W. Rothenbuhler & M.
Coman (Eds.), Media Anthropology (pp. 91-101). Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.
Week Six:

Exposure, Empowerment and Testimony

Dovey, J. (2000). Freakshow: First Person Media and Factual Television. London: Pluto. [Chapter 5: The
Confessing Nation]
Gamson, J. (1998). Freaks talk back: Tabloid talk shows and sexual nonconformity. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press. [Chapter 7: The Tightrope of Visibility]
Khoja-Moolji, S., & Niccolini, A. D. (2016). Watch me Speak: Muslim Girls Narratives and PostFeminist Pleasures of Surveillance. In E. V. D. Meulen & R. Heynen (Eds.), Expanding the Gaze: Gender
and the Politics of Surveillance (pp. 84-102). Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Koskela, H. (2004). Webcams, TV shows and mobile phones: Empowering exhibitionism. Surveillance
& Society, 2(2/3).
Pecora, V. P. (2002). The culture of surveillance. Qualitative Sociology, 25(3), 345-358.
Further Reading
Dubrofsky, R. E., & Wood, M. M. (2015). Gender, Race, and Authenticity: Celebrity Women
Tweeting for the Gaze. In R. E. Dubrofsky & S. A. Magnet (Eds.), Feminist Surveillance Studies. Durham
and London: Duke University Press.
Weber, B. R. (2014). Reality Gendervision: Sexuality and Gender on Transatlantic Reality Television. Durham
and London: Duke University Press.
Part Three: Data and Online Economies of Interaction
Background Reading:
Turow, J. (2012). The daily you: How the new advertising industry is defining your identity and your worth.
Yale University Press. [Please read Chapter 6, though chapters 1 and 2 may also be of interest]
Week Seven: Data-mining and the Online Political Economy
5

Andrejevic, M. (2011). Surveillance and Alienation in the Online Economy. Surveillance & Society, 8(3).
van Dijck, J. (2013). The culture of connectivity: A critical history of social media. New York: Oxford
University Press. [Conclusion]
Mary Madden, Lee Rainie. Pew Research Center, May 2015, Americans Attitudes About Privacy,
Security and Surveillance. Available at: http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/05/20/americansattitudes-about-privacy-security-and-surveillance/
Week Eight:

Algorithms, Interfaces, and Code

Berry, D. M. (2011). The Philosophy of Software: Code and Mediation in the Digital Age. New York:
Palgrave Macmillian.
Gillespie, T. (2012). Can an algorithm Be wrong? Limn, 1(2).
Rosenberg, D. (2013). Data before the Fact. In L. Gitelman (Ed.), Raw Data is an oxymoron (pp. 1540). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Raley, R. (2013). Dataveillance and Countervailance. In L. Gitelman (Ed.), Raw Data is an oxymoron
(pp. 121-146). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
van Dijck, J. (2014). Datafication, dataism and dataveillance: Big Data between scientific paradigm and
ideology. Surveillance & Society 12(2): 197-208.
Part Four: Controlling Spaces within the State
Week Nine:

Security, Policing and Spatial Control

Bennett, C. J., & Haggerty, K. (2011). Introduction. In C. J. Bennett & K. Haggerty (Eds.), Security
Games: Surveillance and Control at Mega-Events (pp. 1-36). Oxon: Routledge.
Heir, Walby, and Greenberg (2006). Supplementing the Panoptic Paradigm: Surveillance, Moral
Governance, and CCTV. In Lyon, D. (Ed.) Theorizing Surveillance the Panopticon and Beyond. p 230-244.
Norris, C., & Armstrong, G. (1999). The maximum surveillance society: The rise of CCTV. Oxford: Berg
Publishers. [Ch 3,4]
Shearing, C., & Stenning, P. (2003). From the Panopticon to Disney World: The development of
discipline. McLaughlin, Eu., Muncie, J., Hughes G., Criminological perspectives. Essential readings, 424-433.
Week Ten:

Barriers and Boundaries of Control

Browne, S. (2015). Dark matters: on the surveillance of blackness. Durham: Duke University Press.
[Chapter 4]
Hall, R. (2015). The transparent traveler: The performance and culture of airport security. Durham and
London: Duke University Press. [Introduction]
Kelly Gates (2016) Professionalizing Police Media Work: Surveillance Video Evidence and the
Forensic Sensibility. In Sharfona Pearl (ed.) Images, Ethics, Technology. NewYork: Routledge, pp. 41-57.
6

Part Five: Beyond State Borders

Week Eleven:

War, Surveillance, and Communication

Gregory, D. (2011). The everywhere war. The Geographical Journal, 177(3), 238-250.
Gusterson, H. (2016). Drone: Remote Control Warfare. MIT Press: Cambridge, MA.
Parks, L. (2013). Zeroing In: Overhead Imagery, Infrastructure Ruins, and Datalands in Afghanistan
and Iraq. In J. Packer & S. B. Crofts (Eds.), Communication Matters: Materialist Approaches to Media,
Mobility and Networks (pp. 78-92). London and New York: Routledge.
Week Twelve:

The Body, the Witness, and the Lens

Andn-Papadopoulos, K. (2013). Citizen Camera-witnessing: Embodied political dissent in the age of

mediated mass self-communication. New Media & Society, 16(5), 753-769.
Burchell, K. (Forthcoming). Take my Picture: The Media Assemblage of Lone-Wolf Terror Events,
Mobile Communication, and the News In Robin Anderson and Purnaka L. de Silva (Eds.), Routledge
Companion to Media and Humanitarian Action. New York: Routledge.
Kuntsman, A., & Stein, R. (2015). Digital militarism: Israels occupation in the social media age. Palo Alto:
Stanford University Press.
Zelizer, B. (2007). On having been there:Eyewitnessing as a journalistic key word. Critical Studies in
Media Communication, 24, 408-428.

Further Reading: Outside the Scope of Surveillance

Deibert, R. (2013). Black Code: Surveillance, Privacy, and the Dark Side of the Internet. Toronto: Signal.
[Chapter 13 "A Zero Day No More"]
Birchall, C. (2011). Introduction to Secrecy and Transparency: The Politics of Opacity and Openness.
Theory, Culture & Society, 28(7-8), 7-25.
Brunton, F., & Nissenbaum, H. F. (2015). Obfuscation: a users guide for privacy and protest. Cambridge,
MA: MIT Press.
Leistert, O. (2012). Resistance against cyber-surveillance within social movements and how
surveillance adapts. Surveillance & Society, 9(4), 441-456.
Marx, G. T. (2003). A tack in the shoe: Neutralizing and resisting the New surveillance. Journal of Social
Sciences, 59(2), 389-390.
Calo, R. (2015). Can Americans Resist Surveillance. University of Chicago Law Review, Forthcoming.
Retrieved from http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Papers.cfm?abstract_id=2635181
Kerr, A., DePaoli, S., & Ketainge, M. (2014). Surveillant Assemblages of Governance in Massively
Multiplayer Online Games: A Comparative Analysis. Surveillance & Society, 12(3), 320-336.

ACADEMIC CONDUCT AND PLAGIARISM:

It is the students responsibility to become familiar with the following documents: The Code of Behaviour on Academic
Matters found at http://www.governingcouncil.utoronto.ca/policies/behaveac.htm; Code of Student Conduct found at
http://www.governingcouncil.utoronto.ca/policies/studentc.htm; and Academic Misconduct [plagiarism, etc.] found at
http://www.sgs.utoronto.ca/governance/policies/academicmisconduct.htm. Please consult the Inforum schedule for
helpful workshops on how to avoid plagiarism. Another useful resource can be found at
http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/advice/using-sources/how-not-to-plagiarize. NB: Lack of awareness of plagiarism does
not excuse the student committing the offence.
COMMUNICATION BETWEEN STUDENTS AND THE COURSE INSTRUCTOR:
The course instructor will be available to answer student questions via email and in person throughout the semester. Each
student is required to have a university-issued email address (@utoronto.ca or @mail.utoronto.ca) linked to Blackboard,
which will be used in the course communication. I will do my best to reply to your correspondence promptly. If I dont, it
may mean I did not receive it; please kindly resend your email. Please email me directly at
kenzie.burchell@utoronto.ca rather than through Blackboard.
WRITING SUPPORT:
As stated in the iSchools Grade Interpretation Guidelines, work that is not well-written and grammatically correct will not
generally be considered eligible for a grade in the A range, regardless of its quality in other respects. With this in mind,
please make use of the writing support offered by the SGS Office of English Language and Writing Support:
(http://www.sgs.utoronto.ca/currentstudents/Pages/English-Language-and-Writing-Support.aspx). The services are
designed to target the needs of both native and non-native speakers and all programs are free. Please consult the current
workshop schedule for more information:
(http://www.sgs.utoronto.ca/currentstudents/Pages/Current-Years-Courses.aspx)
STUDENTS REQUIRING ACCOMMODATIONS:
The course instructor welcomes students with different learning styles in this course. If you require accommodations due to
a disability or a health reason, please inform the course instructor and get in touch with the Accessibility Services Office as
soon as possible: (http://www.accessibility.utoronto.ca/).
GRADES AND EXTENSIONS:
Grades are assigned in accordance with the following policy and grading systems. Please consult the iSchools Grade
Interpretation Guidelines (http://current.ischool.utoronto.ca/grade-interpretation) and the University Assessment and
Grading Practices Policy:
(http://www.governingcouncil.utoronto.ca/Assets/Governing+Council+Digital+Assets/Policies/PDF/grading.pdf).
These documents will form the basis for grading in the course.
The School of Graduate Studies (SGS) defines the grades as follows: A+, A, A- are defined as Excellent; B+, B, B- are
defined as Good; and FZ is defined as Inadequate. The numeric ranges corresponding to the letter grades are as follows:
A+ (90-100%); A (85-89%); A- (80-84% ); B+ (77-79%); B (73-76%); B- (70-72% ); and FZ (0-69% ). This means that,
effectively, you require the final numeric grade of at least 70% to pass the course. The final grade is a letter grade.
Please note that fulfilling the minimal assignment requirements stated in the syllabus does not guarantee you an A; your
work may warrant a B+ or an A-. An A/A+ assignment goes beyond the minimal requirements and shows a genuine passion
for and interest in the topic, as well as originality of thought and/or presentation.
Late Policy: All work is due on the dates and times indicated in the course timeline, or otherwise as stated on the
assignment information sheet. All assignments are due at the beginning of the designated class,
Late assignments received on the same day but after the Due Date Time are penalized by 5%.
Late assignments received on the next day after the Due Date are penalized by 10%.
Late assignments received two days following the Due Date are penalized by 15%.
Assignments will not be accepted after this and will receive a mark of zero.
These late penalties will apply unless you have a PRIOR agreement with the instructor for an extension. Extensions will be
granted only in exceptional and documented circumstances such as illness. Deadlines are crucial in the field of journalism and
so it will be in this course. Please note that being too busy is not a valid excuse for late work all students carry a heavy
workload, so unless your circumstances are truly unique and verified, you are expected to submit work on the due date.

ACADEMIC DATES:
Current academic dates can be found here: (http://current.ischool.utoronto.ca/studies/academic-dates).
The final date to drop fall session full (Y) or half (F) courses without academic penalty: Oct. 31
8