The Centre for the Study of Democratic Citizenship presents:
Margit Tavits (Washington University in St-Louis)
Legacies of the Third Reich: Concentration Camps and Outgroup Intolerance
You can learn more about Professor Tavits by clicking here.
Where and When: Friday, November 15, 2019 at 3:00pm. Ballroom, Thomson House, McGill University.
Abstract: We explore the long-term political consequences of the Third Reich and show that current political intolerance, xenophobia, and voting for radical right-wing parties are associated with proximity to former Nazi concentration camps in Germany. This relationship is not explained by contemporary attitudes, the location of the camps, geographic sorting, the economic impact of the camps, or their current use. We argue that cognitive dissonance led those more directly exposed to Nazi institutions to conform with the belief system of the regime. These attitudes were then transmitted across generations. The evidence provided here contributes both to our understanding of the legacies of historical institutions, and the sources of political intolerance.
See all the other Speaker Series Events here.
This series is sponsored by the Centre for the Study of Democratic Citizenship, which is funded by the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Société et culture (FRQSC).
The Center for the Study of Democratic citizenship, in collaboration with the Milieux Institute for Arts + Technology at Concordia University presents:
AI Commons Workshop: Imagining an AI Commons: A One-Day Workshop on AI and the Commons
Hosts: Machine Agencies, Milieux Institute, Concordia University
Where and when: Friday, December 6, 2019. Milieux Institute for Arts, Culture and Technology at Concordia University. 1515 Rue Sainte-Catherine W. EV Building, 11.455 Montréal.
The workshop is invite only. Some travel funds will be available for speakers.
More information available here.
About : How can artificial intelligence be oriented toward the common good? The belief in AI for good has widespread acceptance in the industry and among governments. Declarations from around the globe—Canada, China, South Korea, France, and more—call for the development of AI to have a social purpose. But what is that purpose?
The workshop seeks to develop a vision for a commons-based approach to the future of AI. It is an intervention to develop democratic approaches to digital disruption and understand transformations in citizen engagement. The workshop will produce a public report on the possibility of an AI as well as a series of video interviews capturing the discussion.
In this workshop, we invite you to reflect broadly on artificial intelligence and its relation to the commons as you consider the following questions:
- What should an AI Commons be?
- How could a commons-based approach guide the development of AI?
- How does a commons approach differ from proposed ethical or rights-based frameworks?
- How could the development of AI today—including the infrastructure and knowledge at its foundation—become a commons?
- What forms of collective action and governance would be necessary? What movements and efforts already exist?
- What latent commons or undercommons might we find in thinking about AI?
- Could AI reshape how we think about the commons, leading to new theories or practices?
- How might related (or unrelated) approaches to the commons be understood through AI and the commons (e.g., making kin, new materialism, infrastructures of care, or platform cooperativism)?
- What histories and instances of the commons does an AI commons require for context and inspiration?
- How might we imagine a future common world for the machines, environments, humans, and other life drawn together by the industrial efforts around AI?
- How can humans, AI, and other agents collaborate equitably in these commons?
- How might AI reproduce sustainably within the natural commons, unseating extractive and settler approaches to common worlds?
The Centre for the Study of Democratic Citizenship presents:
David Fitzgerald (University of California San diego)
Refuge beyond reach: how rich democracies repel asylum seekers
You can learn more about Professor Fitzgerald by clicking here.
Where and When: Friday, January 31, 2020 at 3:00pm. Boardroom 404, Thomson House, McGill University.
Abstract: The core of the asylum regime is the principle ofnon-refoulement that prohibits governments from sending refugees back to their persecutors. Governments attempt to evade this legal obligation to which they have explicitly agreed by manipulating territoriality. A remote control strategy of “extra-territorialization” pushes border control functions hundreds or even thousands of kilometers beyond the state’s territory. Simultaneously, states restrict access to asylum and other rights enjoyed by virtue of presence on a state’s territory, by making micro-distinctions down to the meter at the border line in a process of “hyper-territorialization.” Refuge beyond Reach analyzes remote controls since the 1930s in Palestine, North America, Europe, and Australia to identify the origins of different forms of remote control, explain how they work together as a system of control, and establish the conditions that enable or constrain them in practice. It argues that foreign policy issue linkages and transnational advocacy networks promoting a humanitarian norm that is less susceptible to the legal manipulation of territoriality constrains remote controls more than the law itself. The degree of constraint varies widely by the technique of remote control. FitzGerald engages fundamental theoretical questions about the extent to which norms and institutions shape state action, the collision between sovereignty and universalist values, and the shifting articulation of governments, territories, and rights-bearing individuals.
See all the other Speaker Series Events here.
This series is sponsored by the Centre for the Study of Democratic Citizenship, which is funded by the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Société et culture (FRQSC).
The Centre for the Study of Democratic Citizenship presents:
Jane Green (University of Oxford)
Title Coming Soon
You can learn more about Professor Green by clicking here.
Where and When: Friday, February 7, 2020 at 3:00pm. Room C-2059, Lionel Groulx, UdeM.
Abstract: Coming soon.
See all the other Speaker Series Events here.
This series is sponsored by the Centre for the Study of Democratic Citizenship, which is funded by the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Société et culture (FRQSC).
The Centre for the Study of Democratic Citizenship presents:
John Holbein (University of Virginia)
Title Coming Soon
You can learn more about Professor Holbein by clicking here.
Where and When: Friday, February 21, 2020 at 3:00pm. Room C-2059, Lionel Groulx, UdeM.
Abstract: Coming soon.
See all the other Speaker Series Events here.
This series is sponsored by the Centre for the Study of Democratic Citizenship, which is funded by the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Société et culture (FRQSC).
The Centre for the Study of Democratic Citizenship presents:
Jonathan Mummolo (Princeton University)
The Bias is built: how administrative records mask racially biased policing
You can learn more about Professor Mummolo by clicking here.
Where and When: Friday, March 20, 2020 at 3:00pm. Room 404, Thomson House, McGill University.
Abstract: Researchers often lack the necessary data to credibly estimate racial bias in policing. In particular, police administrative records lack information on civilians police observe but do not investigate. In this paper, we show that if police racially discriminate when choosing whom to investigate, analyses using administrative records to estimate racial discrimination in police behavior are statistically biased, rendering many quantities of interest unidentified—even among investigated individuals—absent strong and untestable assumptions. Using principal stratification in a causal mediation framework, we derive the exact form of the statistical bias that results from traditional estimation approaches. We develop a bias-correction procedure and nonparametric sharp bounds for race effects, replicate published findings, and show traditional estimation techniques can severely underestimate levels of racially biased policing or mask discrimination entirely. We conclude by outlining a general and feasible design for future studies that is robust to this inferential snare.
See all the other Speaker Series Events here.
This series is sponsored by the Centre for the Study of Democratic Citizenship, which is funded by the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Société et culture (FRQSC).
The Centre for the Study of Democratic Citizenship presents:
Sarah Hobolt (London School of Economics and Political Science)
Title Coming Soon
You can learn more about Professor Hobolt by clicking here.
Where and When: Friday, April 3, 2020 at 3:00pm. Room TBD, Lionel Groulx Building, UdeM.
Abstract: Abstract soon.
See all the other Speaker Series Events here.
This series is sponsored by the Centre for the Study of Democratic Citizenship, which is funded by the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Société et culture (FRQSC).
The Centre for the Study of Democratic Citizenship presents:
Cory Clark (Durham University)
Title Coming Soon
You can learn more about Professor Clark by clicking here.
Where and When: Friday, April 17, 2020 at 3:00pm. Room Salle 404, Thomson House, McGill.
Abstract: Abstract soon.
See all the other Speaker Series Events here.
This series is sponsored by the Centre for the Study of Democratic Citizenship, which is funded by the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Société et culture (FRQSC).
The Centre for the Study of Democratic Citizenship presents:
Daniel Butler (University of California San Diego)
Title Coming Soon
You can learn more about Professor Butler by clicking here.
Where and When: Friday, May 8, 2020 at 3:00pm. Room TBD, Thomson House, McGill.
Abstract: Abstract soon.
See all the other Speaker Series Events here.
This series is sponsored by the Centre for the Study of Democratic Citizenship, which is funded by the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Société et culture (FRQSC).
The Centre for the Study of Democratic Citizenship presents:
Bart Bonikowski (Harvard University)
Title Coming Soon
You can learn more about Professor Bonikowski by clicking here.
Where and When: Friday, May 22, 2020 at 3:00pm. Room 404, Thomson House, McGill.
Abstract: Abstract soon.
See all the other Speaker Series Events here.
This series is sponsored by the Centre for the Study of Democratic Citizenship, which is funded by the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Société et culture (FRQSC).
