Deadline: July 27, 2020.

The Citizen Lab is also aware that the information security community has long standing problems with diversity. These problems cannot be allowed to continue unchallenged and we stand firmly in solidarity with calls for structural changes to correct this course. In the absence of deeply integrated and meaningful representation across a spectrum of communities and experiences, they risk perpetuating systemic racism in our own work. They also miss out on creativity, talent, and opportunities to make progress on some of our world’s most pressing problems.

As an academic institution focused on the advancement of human rights within the technological sphere, they are committed to addressing systemic racism and inequality while also making our own space more representative of the communities we serve.

PROJECT TOPIC AREAS

Projects can have a technical and / or legal and policy focus. Potential topics could include but are not limited to:

• Technical, legal, and / or policy Investigations of surveillance technologies (e.g., IMSI catchers, drones, facial recognition, CCTV, bodycams, etc.) in communities of colour and / or deployed during protests
• Developing privacy enhancing technologies and tactics (e.g., encryption and anonymity tools, contextualizing these tools for racialized communities).

The fellowship could result in a variety of outputs from research reports, software, data visualizations, etc. 

ELIGIBILITY

• Applicants must identify as Black to be eligible for the fellowship
• The fellowship is base
• Applications are open to people from a variety of professional backgrounds and disciplines and can include students and junior to mid-career practitioners. While individuals with unique career paths are encouraged to apply, likely candidates have experience as software developers, systems administrators, information security researchers, computer science and engineering students and researchers, social science students and researchers (e.g., political science, sociology, etc), lawyers and law students, community organizers, and others. 

BENEFITS

• Support of $4,000 CAD distributed in monthly payments
  • 3 month total: $12,000 CAD
  • 6 month total: $24,000 CAD
• You will work remotely and will collaborate with a team of researchers at the Citizen Lab, University of Toronto

OFFICIAL LINKl: https://citizenlab.ca/2020/06/citizen-lab-fellowship-surveillance-digital-security-and-race/