I teach courses in two departments. In the Information School, I teach Information Ethics and Policy (LIS 661), The Information Society (LIS 201), and Data and Algorithms: Ethics and Policy (LIS 461). LIS 661 is an intensive primer on theoretical, legal, and policy-level approaches to important issues in information ethics and policy, including (among other things) speech/expression, infrastructure availability, neutrality, and ownership, privacy, intellectual property, and cultural property. LIS 201 examines social, legal, philosophical, and moral questions related to information and information technologies. LIS 461 is an introduction to moral, legal, and policy issues related to predictive analytics, “big data,” and algorithmic decision systems.

In the Legal Studies program (which is part of the Center for Law, Society & Justice), I teach Jurisprudence and Contemporary Issues (Legal Studies 450) and Surveillance, Privacy and Police Powers (Legal Studies 460, cross-listed at LIS 460). Jurisprudence and Contemporary Issues introduces and examines and number of fundamental questions about the nature and content of law, and uses approaches to those questions to look at what the proper or justifiable scope of law is. For example, what conduct may be justifiably prohibited? What makes something “property” and what does it mean for something to be property? Is it justifiable to punish people, and if so when and why? What is the force (if any) of “international law”?  Surveillance, Privacy, and Police Powers considers a variety of questions related to state surveillance and privacy, including what is privacy? Whether, and to what extent, people have legal and moral rights to privacy? To what degree is surveillance is justifiable? It examines privacy and surveillance in the context of law enforcement, security, public health, education, finance, and others.

Some syllabi for recent versions of these courses are below (pdf):

LIS 661: Information Ethics and Policy (Spring 2020)

LIS 201: The Information Society (Fall 2019)

Legal Studies/LIS 460: Surveillance, Privacy, and Police Powers (Fall 2016)

Legal Studies 450: Jurisprudence and Contemporary Issues (Spring 2017)