On 19 March 2025, the LINAS cohort and friends gathered for the final Seminar of this year’s series, bringing together researchers and academics from across Queen’s.  We heard from two LINAS doctoral scholars and one invited academic speaker, each exploring pressing contemporary issues from unique disciplinary perspectives.

Nora Poloni-Gallagher opened the session with her presentation "AI vs Human Advice: How Public Servants Interact with AI-Enabled Systems", shedding light on the practical and ethical dimensions of AI use in public service.  Cecile Harrault followed with her talk offering a critical legal lens on algorithmic governance.  "The Invisible Hand: Legal Implications of Automated Demotion on Social Media Platforms".

Finally, Dr Matt Nicholl delivered a fascinating talk titled "Finding the Needle in the Cosmic Haystack: Big Data Challenges in Explosive Astrophysics", illustrating the monumental data challenges in astrophysical research and his continuing collaboration with LINAS scholars.

This final Seminar marked the culmination of an exciting year, during which we hosted nine presentations spanning disciplines such as law, politics, anthropology, physics, social sciences, and criminology.  The variety of topics and approaches truly highlighted the interdisciplinary ethos of the LINAS programme.

A heartfelt thank you to all our speakers and attendees for making the series such a success!

 

Authors

Anna Hollis, 2^nd year LINAS Doctoral Scholar in the School of Psychology.

Felix Elliott, 2^nd year LINAS Doctoral Scholar in the School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work.