[Air-L] PhD position in Biometrics from existential perspectives

[Charles M. Ess]

Dear AoIR-ists,

With the usual apologies for cross-posting -

On behalf of Amanda Lagerkvist (Uppsala University), I'm very pleased to 
call your attention to the newly advertised 4/5 year fully funded PhD 
position in the BioMe project, situated in the Media and Communication 
Department in affiliation with the Informatics and Media Department, 
Uppsala University: :
<https://uu.varbi.com/en/what:job/jobID:303291/>

(In the name of full disclosure, I am (proudly) affiliated with the 
BioMe Project as ethics advisor and consultant in the development of an 
existential virtue ethics of care.)

The PhD student, who will begin in August 2020, will be recruited to 
study the limits of biometrics, and will also be part of the WASP-HS 
graduate school, funded by the Wallenberg Foundations:
<https://wasp-hs.org/about-wasp-hs/>

As a brief introduction to the BioMe project: the project is rooted in 
the frameworks of existential media studies and its central aim is to 
investigate the experiential range of encounters with these technologies 
with a focus on both possibilities as well as challenges and 
vulnerabilities, in order to scrutinize the pressing ethical imperatives 
they pose for networked humanity.
(See: 
<https://www.im.uu.se/research/hub-for-digtal-existence/#anchor-811040>)

This section from the PhD position description is a good first taste of 
the obligations and possibilities of the PhD project:
==
Within the framework of BioMe the hired doctoral candidate is expected 
to contribute to new knowledge about both the limits of biometric 
technologies, and of strategies of living against facial recognition and 
other technologies that turn bodies into data, through machine-based 
measurement and statistical analysis of people's unique physical 
characteristics. In addition to offering knowledge about consequences of 
AI, in line with the aims of WASP-HS, this PhD project will discern 
potential alternatives to the developments at hand. This dissertation 
will add to the project an in-depth interrogation of various existential 
strategies for challenging and evading biometrics, thereby also 
highlighting those ethical issues and potential resolves discernible at 
the limits of biometrics.
==

I can further add that on the basis of considerable experience in these 
parts, I would consider the possibility of living and working in Uppsala 
to be an unparalleled opportunity more broadly.

Please share this call within your networks and especially those 
colleagues whose interests and abilities might be well matched to the 
position.

Many thanks in advance,
- charles ess


-- 
Professor in Media Studies
Department of Media and Communication
University of Oslo
<http://www.hf.uio.no/imk/english/people/aca/charlees/index.html>

Co-chair & Editor, Internet Research Ethics 3.0
<https://aoir.org/reports/ethics3.pdf>

3rd edition of Digital Media Ethics out soon!
<http://politybooks.com/bookdetail/?isbn=9781509533428>

Postboks 1093
Blindern 0317
Oslo, Norway
c.m.ess at media.uio.no