Meet the Doctoral Scholars
The Leverhulme Interdisciplinary Network on Cybersecurity and Society (LINCS) at Queen’s University Belfast has been established to support pioneering research at the interface between the social sciences and electronic engineering & computer science.
LINCS brings together The Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice and the Centre for Secure Information Technologies (CSIT) to develop a distinctive cohort of doctoral students working across the boundaries of their disciplines who will open up new avenues of enquiry centred initially on the priority themes and specific PhD projects.
Ciara’s research is situated at the intersection between protests, policing and counter-surveillance. Engaging with Foucauldian Surveillance Studies and Critical Race Theory, she examines the ways in which visual surveillance technologies (e.g. body-worn cameras, dash-cameras, camera phones) impact relationships in the Black Lives Matter movement.
Paul's research is focused on the security and privacy of consumer based IoT at the intersection of technical design and social constructs. Addressing areas of vulnerability in mismanaged IoT Software-Defined Networking (SDN) based solutions. In particular, focusing on the misidentification or misclassification of IoT devices (Device Fingerprinting/Device Identification) on consumer based SDN solutions and examining how this can be used for malicious spying purposes.
Cian's research investigates the inter-relations between former US President Donald Trump and the predominantly online political movement known as the alt-right. Drawing upon and seeking development of securitisation theory, the project seeks to map out the securitisation dynamics between the unorthodox security politics of Trump, and the exceptionalist perspectives of the alt-right.
Olly’s work looks at the U.S. Military in the context of Gaming, considering how Games fit into both the work lives of servicepeople and their circles, being used for Recruitment, Propaganda, Training, Relaxation, and Emotional Recovery. He is deeply involved in the world of online gaming and has been working closely with soldiers and servicepeople of all kinds to gather information on how gaming fits into their lives.
While disinformation has always existed, my research explores the cultural shift brought about by the form of ‘fake news’ that emerged from the 2016 US election. Specifically, the impact for journalists in Northern Ireland during the COVID-19 crisis. The interdisciplinary nature of my project aims to interlink social science with computer science. Ethnographic fieldwork during the pandemic will form the basis of the study and inform the natural language processing (NLP) direction of the work. The role of emotion in news production will be explored, as well as questions of truth and trust.
Tomás’ research focuses on the legality of algorithmic decision-making in governments, with a specific focus on accountability. Adopting a socio-legal approach, Tomás is interested in eliciting some of the key concerns stemming from the hasty implementation of technology in the public sector, and how legal and computer science perspectives on algorithmic decision-making can coalesce in the future.
Michael's research aims to uncover the wider socio-political impact of increasingly invasive mass surveillance programs, and what impact new and emerging documentary-filmmaking technologies have upon these frameworks.