ABOUT the Art Prize
The Surveillance Studies Network (SSN) is dedicated to the study of surveillance in all its forms. It promotes innovative and multidisciplinary work on surveillance, including research that bridges different academic fields, furthers the understanding of surveillance in wider society, and informs information policy and political debate. As part of its mandate, the SSN seeks to encourage creative and artistic practices engaging with the topic of surveillance. As such, the Surveillance Studies Network Arts Prize is a bi-annual award that recognizes and publicly supports artwork centred on critical readings of surveillance.
Thank you to the 2020 and 2022 SSN adjudication committee, especially Dr. Susan Cahill for her work as previous Arts Editor for the Surveillance Studies Network and Surveillance & Society Journal.
About the curators
Stéfy McKnight
Dr. Stéfy McKnight (they/she/elle) is a white settler femme of centre (foc) and queer artist scholar based in Katarokwi/Kingston in so called Canada. They are an Assistant Professor at Carleton University. Stéfy’s research examines research-creation as a methodology for knowledge production and fact based storytelling. They are the founder of SSHRC funded PROTOHYVE: Centrefor Innovative Research-Creation (protohyve.com). Their research interests are broad and look at surveillance as contemporary colonialism in North America; queer and femme representation in digital and virtual spaces; 2SLGBTQIA+ activism; technology in rural communities, and art as function-creep. In 2017, their artwork “hunting for prey” was awarded an honorable mention for the inaugural Surveillance Studies Network Arts Prize.
Julia Chan
Julia Chan is a mixed-race settler, writer, artist, and academic living in Tkaronto/Toronto. She
holds a PhD in Cultural Studies from Queen's University at Kingston. Her doctoral research—
which explored the connections between image-based sexual abuse, surveillance, and
cinematic/visual cultures—was supported by a SSHRC Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada
Graduate Scholarship. Recently, she was a Mitacs Postdoctoral Visitor in Cinema and Media
Arts at York University and the Managing Editor of PUBLIC: Art | Culture | Ideas. In 2021, she
was the inaugural Postdoctoral Fellow at Carleton University's Institute of Criminology and
Criminal Justice.
