SIPA Awards Research Grants in Internet Policy and Cybersecurity
SIPA has awarded six grants to support research at the intersection of digital technology and public policy, including projects on the impact of high-speed broadband on an American city, “patriot hackers,” cooperation in cyberspace, and other topics in Internet policy and cybersecurity.
The grant recipients, one junior faculty member and five doctoral students at Columbia University, were chosen by a panel chaired by Dean Merit E. Janow and faculty members Matthew J. Connelly, associate professor of history, and Matthew Waxman, the Liviu Librescu Professor of Law.
The grants are part of a broad initiative at SIPA to promote multi-disciplinary policy-oriented research in cyber policy and internet governance and to build bridges between university-based researchers and thought leaders in the public and private sectors. The program draws in part on support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
"SIPA is engaging questions around internet governance and cyber-policy in areas such as security, privacy, data management, international trade, innovation, and civic engagement," said Janow. "These grants also reflect SIPA’s ongoing commitment to support the research and professional development of young scholars in various disciplines throughout the University who stand to make a contribution to this complex and rapidly-expanding field."
Awardees
Susan McGregor, assistant director of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism and assistant professor at Columbia Journalism School, will conduct in-depth research to document the cybersecurity challenges faced by journalistic organizations. By engaging partner organizations, McGregor’s research has the potential to impact how news organizations operate and engage with issues of cybersecurity.
Burcu Baykurt, a PhD candidate in communications, will focus on smart city infrastructure in the Kansas City area, which Google selected as the first U.S. test site for its high-speed broadband. Baykurt will be embedded in the mayor’s office of Kansas City, Missouri, where she will interview public officials as well as policy strategists from Cisco Systems, a partner on the project.
Justin Canfil, a PhD candidate in international relations, will use the award to focus on “patriot hackers” and how governments employ unaffiliated hackers to carry out both military and foreign policy aims.
Shawn Lonergan, a PhD candidate in political science, will focus on the impediments to cooperation in cyberspace and what conditions would make cooperation more likely to occur by examining and going beyond classic theories of deterrence.
Philip Polefrone, a PhD candidate in English and comparative literature, will examine hate speech and the protection of online activists by analyzing the #GamerGate controversy. The results of Polefrone’s research could impact policy-making as legislation in the U.S. is revisited.
Peter Roady, a PhD candidate in history, will use the grant to develop a framework to help U.S. policymakers quickly determine if and when a response to a cyber event is warranted.