Description
The Carr Center for Human Rights Policy breaks new ground with an international fellowship network dedicated to advancing theory and practice on the urgent question that faces every society:
“SURVEILLANCE CAPITALISM OR DEMOCRACY?”
The Carr Center's Technology and Human Rights program is a core initiative that explores how technological progress shapes the future of human life and impacts human rights protections. For at least the next three years, this program will focus on the urgent theme of “Surveillance Capitalism or Democracy: Who Knows, Who Decides?”
In this initiative, Carr Center Faculty Director Mathias Risse will be joined by visionary author and emerita HBS Professor Shoshana Zuboff, whose 2019 book, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, has alerted the public around the world to the threats associated with this new mode of capitalism driven by the secret population-scale collection and exploitation of human data.
“Surveillance capitalism owns and operates our global information and communication spaces, creating dangerous conditions that no democracy can survive,” explains Zuboff. “This is the institutional death match of our time that will determine the fate of democracy in this century. Countless people around the world share the sense of urgency reflected in the extraordinary accomplishments and global reach of our incoming fellows.”
During their fellowship, fellows will work on projects that draw on Zuboff’s path-breaking work and Risse’s 2023 book, Political Theory of the Digital Age. The fellowship year will feature activities centered around the theme "Surveillance Capitalism or Democracy," including events commemorating the fifth anniversary of Zuboff's book.
“I am delighted that the Carr Center’s work around technology and human rights is now advancing into this new direction. Understanding the impact of surveillance capitalism on democracy around the world is one of the key challenges of our times,” said Risse. “This is a worldwide concern and it is reflected in the high quality of this genuinely global group of incoming fellows.”
Learn more about the members of the incoming Technology and Human Rights Fellowship Cohort below.
The 2024–2025 “Surveillance Capitalism or Democracy” Fellowship Cohort:
Linda Bonyo
Founder, Lawyers Hub
Bonyo founded Lawyers Hub, a digital law organization working on artificial intelligence policy in Africa. She convenes the Africa Law Tech Forum where policymakers, regulators and bar associations in Africa lead regulation of emerging technologies.
Ann Kristin Glenster
Executive Director, Glenlead Centre
Glenster is a legal expert on data protection, privacy, cybersecurity, intellectual property, and data and AI regulation and governance. The Glenlead Centre is a consortium of independent researchers that aims to bridge the gap between high-quality research and public policy with a particular focus on information technology, higher education, and the public good.
Julia-Silvana Hofstetter
Senior Advisor, ICT4Peace Foundation
Hofstetter is a political scientist and expert on emerging technologies and their impact on international peace and security. At the ICT4Peace Foundation, she teaches capacity-building courses for representatives from governments and international organizations on digital disinformation and hate speech in armed conflict and gendered perspectives on cybersecurity.
Burcu Kilic
Senior Fellow, Center for International Governance Innovation (CIGI)
Kilic has worked with a diverse range of organizations across civil society, philanthropy and academia. Her research and writings cover digital rights, intellectual property, innovation and trade, and she has provided technical advice and assistance in countries in Asia, Latin America, Europe and Africa.
Emre Kizilkaya
Manager, Journo
Kizilkaya is an Istanbul-based editor and media researcher. Presently, he manages Journo, a non-profit news platform supported by Turkey's Journalists' Union and the EU. Between 2003 and 2019, he held various positions at ü, Turkey's leading newspaper at the time, and was selected in 2019 for the Knight Visiting Nieman Fellowship.
Nai Lee Kalema
PhD Candidate, Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose, University College London
Lee Kalema’s doctoral research explores the global political economy of digital transformation, specifically examining how global digital and AI governance influences public-sector digital transformation in the Global South. Specifically, her empirical cases look at digital public infrastructure and digital-era government projects linked to digital identity in Kenya and Uganda.
Lisa LeVasseur
Founder, Executive Director, and Research Director, Internet Safety Labs
Internet Safety Labs is a non-profit technology watchdog dedicated to exposing risky behaviors of software and software-driven technology. With over three decades in industry, LeVasseur’s formative years were spent at Motorola as a software engineer developing embedded software for mobile phone infrastructure.
Patrick K. Lin
Attorney, Digital Technology & Human Rights Group, Eisenberg & Baum, LLP
Lin specializes in artificial intelligence, surveillance technology, and data privacy regulation. He is the author of Machine See, Machine Do, a book about how institutions use technology to surveil, police, and make decisions about the public, as well as the historical biases that impact that technology.
Helena Malikova
Directorate General for Competition at the European Commission
Malikova is a European Union civil servant with the European competition watchdog the Directorate General for Competition at the European Commission in Brussels. She is currently leading the directorate’s work on intelligence gathering and investigations.
Victor M. Montori
Robert H. and Susan M. Rewoldt Professor of Medicine, Mayo Clinic
An endocrinologist, health services researcher, and care activist, Montori is the author of more than 750 peer-reviewed publications and is among the most cited researchers in clinical medicine and in social science. He works at Mayo Clinic's KER Unit to advance person-centered care for patients with diabetes and other chronic conditions.
Nicole Ozer
Technology and Civil Liberties Director, ACLU of Northern California
Ozer has led the organization’s cutting-edge work in California to defend and promote rights in the modern digital world since 2004. She sets the strategic vision for the Technology and Civil Liberties Program and implements an advocacy approach that coordinates work in courts and communities, with companies and policymakers to drive access, equity, and justice in the digital age.
Pariroo Rattan
PhD Candidate, Science, Technology and Policy Studies, Harvard Kennedy School
Rattan is a Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Program on Science, Technology and Society. Her doctoral work studies the moral politics of the digital economy and the rise of populism in India, where she conducts ethnography on the adoption of digital biometrics and payment systems by street vendors.
Anna Romandash
Author, Women of Ukraine: Reportages from the War and Beyond
Romandash is an award-winning journalist from Ukraine and was named Media Freedom Ambassador of Ukraine for her human rights and media work. She works at the intersection of media, technology, and human rights, and is passionate about digitizing democracy to better the lives of people in developing democracies.
Sebastian Smart
Researcher, Anglia Ruskin University
Smart is a human rights lawyer with a background in academia and advocacy. He previously served as the Regional Director for the Chilean National Human Rights Institution and as a researcher at Universidad Austral de Chile. Sebastian has also worked extensively in non-governmental organizations in Chile, the United Kingdom, and Haiti, focusing on diverse human rights issues.
Lex Zard
Ph.D. Leiden University School of Law
Zard is a legal scholar who specializes in the European Union’s digital policies regarding surveillance advertising. His research raises fundamental questions on the legality of the hidden operations that enable the behavioral ad industry.