Scribner Seminar, London FYE 2024

No Place to Hide:  Surveillance in Bentham's and Orwell’s London

Scott Mulligan, 
Senior Teaching Professor of International Affairs

You are being watched.  By whom and why?  How does this impact your everyday life?  Find out in London, one of the most heavily-surveilled cities in the world, where everyone is under the constant gaze of government and privately-operated CCTV and other surveillance systems.  Considering the debate between protecting individual privacy and liberty against those professing security provided by ever-increasing surveillance, we will examine the threats to democracy stemming from widespread deployment of surveillance technologies which also are used to manipulate public opinion by exploiting private information.  We will investigate what kinds of personal and intimate information are collected by companies and governments; how that information is analyzed, shared and sold; and how AI-enabled surveillance systems like license plate readers, reconnaissance drones, data mining, biometric scanners, facial recognition, the Internet-of-Things and GPS trackers operate.  Using London as our laboratory, we will explore the historical foundations and current status of information privacy rules, polices and ethical norms by drawing on literary, legal, historical, political, philosophical and cinematically-based perspectives. Using GIS mapping systems, students will create surveillance-based projects and be challenged to propose and communicate creative solutions addressing the tensions between living in a free society and protecting it from harm.

Scott Mulligan is a Senior Teaching Professor in the International Affairs Program at Skidmore College and an attorney-at-law.  He teaches courses on intellectual property, media ethics, entertainment law, national security, international trade and global illicit markets. When not in the classroom, he enjoys hiking, amateur astronomy and singing in the Skidmore Community Chorus.