[Air-L] Workshop research ethics 29.11. at Utrecht University

[Mirko Tobias Schaefer]

What:
The Utrecht University's Institute for Cultural Inquiry (ICON) in 
cooperation with Utrecht Data School (UDS) is organizing a workshop on 
Research Ethics for Data and Digital Methods. The workshop will take 
place on 29 th of November 2016 in the Sweelinckzaal from 10a.m - 5p.m.

Why:
New data resources and novel tools for analysis provide opportunities 
and challenges for researchers. The use of social media in research 
practices, or the disputed Facebook study, the leaked Ashley Madison 
data set or the Cablegate database are only few of many example that 
pressure researchers to revisit research ethics. In response to the 
changing practices for collecting and (re)using data for research, this 
workshop will revisit ethical standards for researchers. Speakers from 
the field of ethics in general and from the field of data research and 
digital humanities in particular will kick-start our discussion on 
various ‘ethical minefields’ and how to apply ethical guidelines.

For whom:
You are interested in research ethics, digital methods, digital 
humanities and using data, social media or web platforms for your 
research, this workshop is for you. If you use any kind of data for your 
Ph.D. or post-doctoral research, and if you face questions of research 
ethics,  you are warmly invited to take part in this workshop.

Participation is free of charge but seats are limited. Please register 
through sending a brief motivation of your interest or a brief summary 
of the data you use and the immediate ethical questions you have to our 
workshop coordinator Aline Franzke: aline at dataschool.nl

Programme

10:00 Doors open, coffee

10:15  Introduction by Nele Heise: “Revisiting research ethics”

10:30  What is a process oriented framework for research?  (Nele Heise)

What are the different contexts in which research takes place? What are 
the legal frameworks and how to deal with online data? What are the 
communication principles that guide academic research? Nele Heise will 
present a process oriented, context sensitive approach to research ethics.

11:30 Discussion

12: 00 Lunch

12:45 Group work: Applying the framework to everyday practices

Which ethical problems researcher face? What are the most urgent topics 
and themes? Participants form groups according their interest and apply 
and discuss the presented framework. For example: One group that is 
mostly interested in problems of qualitative/ qualitative research, 
reviewing processes.

13:30 Coffee break

13:40 Groups present their results

14:40 Coffee break

14:55 Intervention by Dr. Ingrid Hoofd “How to implement ethical 
guidelines?”

Ingrid Hoofd about pitfalls, other concerns and practical experience in 
Singapore to implement ethical reflection. Should ethical reflection be 
obligatory Does it constitute a culture of surveillance? What does it 
mean to be liable as a faculty?

16:00 Discussion: Next steps in revisiting research ethics and informing 
policy.

17:00 Drinks


Biographical notes

Aline Franzke is a junior researcher at Utrecht Data School and the 
Institute for Cultural Inquiry. She obtained an MA in Applied Ethics at 
Utrecht University. Aline investigates data practices in public 
management and consults municipalities on data ethics.

Nele Heise is a digital media and communication researcher, working at 
the Institut für Journalistik und Kommunikationswissenschaften at the 
university of Hamburg. Nele is involved in developing online research 
ethics conferences and guidelines. Her Ph.D. project sheds light on the 
technological and social conditions of media participation in the 
digital age. Besides her academic endeavour, Nele is active in 
communicating media research to a broader public audience via blogs, 
radio and television.

Dr. Ingrid Hoofd is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Media 
and Culture. Her research revolves around issues of representation, 
feminist and critical theories, philosophy of technology, and 
information ethics. She is the author of Ambiguities of Activism: 
Alter-Globalism and the Imperatives of Speed. Her research generally 
analyses the ways in which alter-globalist activists, as well as 
left-wing academics, mobilize what she calls ‘speed-elitist’ discourses 
and divisions in an attempt to overcome gendered, raced, and classed 
oppressions worldwide.