Surveillance studies expert cross-appointed to Queen's Law

Professor David Lyon

David Lyon, Professor of Sociology and Director of the Surveillance Studies Centre (SSC) at Queens University, has been cross-appointed to the Law Faculty. Appointed a Queen's Research Chair in 2005, he has also received other significant honours for his work: a Killam Research Fellowship from the Canada Council, 2008-10, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Sociological Association Communication and Information Technology section in 2007, and being named a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2008.

"We are delighted that Professor Lyon is joining the Faculty of Law," says Dean Bill Flanagan. "He has a distinguished research record and a number of our faculty members have closely related research interests. His appointment also reflects the Faculty's commitment to interdisciplinary research and teaching."

Lyon's research and teaching interests center on major social transformations in the modern world, prominently featuring issues in the information society, globalization, secularization, surveillance and post-modernity. In surveillance studies, his major research area over the past 20 years, he brings a sociological perspective on issues raised by personal data processing in a database-dependent world.

As Director of the SSC (formerly the Surveillance Project) since its inception in 2000, Lyon has led collaborative and international projects in promoting a multi-disciplinary understanding of a full range of cutting-edge issues. Over the past 11 years, the SSC -- already a leading global hub for research on expanding surveillance practices -- has received grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council totaling almost $5 million. Through the SSC, he has worked with several Law Faculty members, including Associate Dean Sharryn Aiken, Professors Arthur Cockfield, Law '93 (SSC executive member), Malcolm Thorburn and Bita Amani.

"The research and writing I've been doing for the past two decades has brought me increasingly in touch with questions touching law and legal scholars," Lyon says. "Questions of surveillance, privacy, human dignity and human rights have deep legal dimensions so I welcome the opportunity to work together more closely with respected colleagues in Law."

Lyon's work has been well-received in many countries, with his 25 authored or edited books translated into more than 15 languages. Identifying Citizens: ID Cards as Surveillance (2009) and Surveillance Studies: An Overview (2007) are the most recent books he has written, and his newest co-edited collections are Surveillance, Privacy and the Globalization of Personal Information (with Queen's sociologist Elia Zureik and others, 2010), Surveillance and Control in Israel/Palestine: Population, Territory, Power (with Elia Zureik and Yasmeen-Abu-Laban, 2010) and Playing the Identity Card (with Colin Bennett, 2008). Currently, he is writing a book on global identification and co-editing The International Handbook of Surveillance Studies.

The author of many published articles, he sits on the international editorial boards of a number of journals, and serves as the North American editor of Surveillance and Society (an e-journal he founded) and Associate Editor of The Information Society.

A frequent contributor to policy debates on surveillance issues in Canada and internationally, Lyon has participated in conferences, media interviews, documentaries, and even festivals. He holds bachelor's and doctoral degrees in social science and history from the University of Bradford in Yorkshire, England, has held visiting positions at the Universities of Auckland, Edinburgh, Melbourne, Leeds, and Tokyo, the Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore, India, the Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México and the École des hautes études en sciences sociales in Paris.

At Queen's Law, plans are being discussed for Lyon to give a talk next fall as part of the Dean's Lecture Series (wherein the Dean invites all newly appointed faculty members to give a lecture that is open to all professors and students), and to teach a short intensive course in the area of his research interests.