SSC Seminar Series: Veronica Moretti (University of Bologna)

Risk perception and digital surveillance among American college students

Wednesday, February 7 2018, 12:30 to 2:00 pm

MacCorry Hall, Room D411 (Sociology Lounge)

Within each American university campus, a Department of Public Safety (DPS) is designated to send students emails whenever a crime is committed on campus or in the surrounding area.

Moretti's study investigates the extent to which information sharing about criminal events through emails may alter risk perception and may increase digital surveillance practices in American university campuses.

It can be argued that this email service highlights some types of crime (property crimes) and not others (e.g. sexual harassment goes largely unreported) and this may lead to a misleading risk perception and it may reveal a specific type of control exercised by the universities.

About the speaker: Veronica Moretti is a Ph.D. student and teaching assistant in Sociology and Business Law Department at the University of Bologna. Her research interests focus on the intersections between technologies and human activities, with specific emphasis on the interrelationship between self-tracking, health, risk and new forms of surveillance.

Everyone welcome!