The current period of technological disruption is leading to wide-ranging impacts across all facets of society, including changes in the way citizens work, live, and interact with each other and the state. There is an urgent need to advance global perspectives on managing the risks and opportunities associated with new and emerging technologies in a range of fields, including climate change adaptation and mitigation, bio-ethics, future of work and education in a new age of AI and automation, cyber-crime, and food production and distribution. The social sciences and humanities have a great deal to offer in terms of addressing questions around the societial impacts of technological change taking place across these and many other fields.
This project consisted of a workshop bringing together considerable expertise from Australia and India to tackle some of the most challenging questions concerning the future of technology and society, and to establish and sustain a longer-tem cross-research network.
The workshop involved experts from key interdisciplinary fields from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi's (IITD) Department of Humanities and Social Sciences and UQ's Faculties of Social Science, Business, Economic, Law, Engineers, and Architecture and Information Technology.
The event provided an excellent opportunity to strengthen UQ's relationship with the IITD (a premier partner under the Global Strategy Framework) situated in one of UQ's priority countries. It also provided an excellent basis for future research collaboration through competitive grants, including the contrinued cross-recruitment and joint supervision of Research Higher Degre (RHD) students.
The proposed workshop aimed to deliver the following outcomes and benefits:
- Strengthen the partnership between UQ and IITD, particularly between scholars and RHD students in the humanities and social sciences on key elements of new and emerging technologies and social change
- Provide a basis for the cross-recruitment and joint supervision of postgraduate students between the IITD Department of Humanities and Social Sciences and the UQ HASS Faculty.
- Seed opportunities for future research collaboration around the future of technology, law and society- a research theme that aligns with the work of a number of scholars across UQ.
- Co-Publications either in the form of a special issue of a leading international journal, or an edited collection (the form of which is to be determined at the workshop).
- Advance digital humanities and social science research methods and data analytics, which is a key strategic priority for the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences.
Professor Greg Marston, Centre for Policy Futures, UQ
Professor Mark Western, Institute for Social Science Research, UQ
Professor Rhema Vaithianathan, Institute for Social Science Research, UQ
Associate Professor Paul Henman, Chief Investigator and UQ Node Leader (ADM+S Centre), School of Social Science, UQ
Dr Allison Fish, Centre for Policy Futures, UQ
Associate Professor Ian Hardy, School of Education, UQ
Associate Professor Renuka Mahadevan, School of Economics, UQ
Dr Jonah Rimer, School of Social Science, UQ
Dr Dhavel Yvas, School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, UQ
Dr Kiah Smith, School of Social Science, UQ
Ms Sonali Hedditch, Centre for Policy Futures, UQ
Associate Professor Naveen Thayyil, Indian lnstitute of Technology, Delhi
Associate Professor Arjun Ghosh, Indian lnstitute of Technology, Delhi
Dr Upasna Sharma, Indian lnstitute of Technology, Delhi
Dr Richa Kumar, Indian lnstitute of Technology, Delhi