Dr. Wendy Wong to Deliver Vigod Memorial Lecture in Human Rights
7:00 PM
Kinsella Auditorium
Dr. Wendy H. Wong will deliver the 2022 Vigod Memorial Lecture in Human Rights. The lecture is hosted by the Atlantic Human Rights Centre and will take place in the Kinsella Auditorium on Thursday, October 20th at 7 PM.
Dr. Wong’s lecture titled “We, the Data: Claiming Human Rights in the Digital Age” will address the challenges digital technology poses to the realization of human rights.
According to Dr. Wong, “Human rights are one of the major innovations of the 20th century. Their emergence after World War II and global uptake promised a new world of universalized humanity in which human dignity would be protected, and individuals would have agency and flourish. The proliferation of digital data (i.e. datafication) and its intertwining with our lives, coupled with the growth of AI, signals a fundamental shift in the human experience. Data are “sticky.” Human rights remain our best hope for ensuring essential human values that have come to be accepted internationally, but we have to account for how sticky data affect our conceptions of values like autonomy, dignity, equality, and community.” This talk will explore some of the ways data stickiness affects our lives, and make a case for the urgency of a human right to data literacy.
Dr. Wendy H. Wong studies global governance. She is particularly attentive to how non-state actors (e.g. nongovernmental organizations, civil society actors, social movements, corporations) govern at the global and domestic levels. Her areas of interest are emerging technologies like AI, Big Data, human rights, and humanitarian assistance. Dr. Wong has written two award-winning books, penned dozens of peer-reviewed articles and chapters, and has contributed to outlets such as The Globe and Mail, The Toronto Star, and The Conversation. She has been awarded grants from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada and Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, among other granting agencies.
Currently, she is Professor of Political Science and Principal’s Research Chair at the University of British Columbia, Okanagan (located on Sylix Okanagan Nation Territory). Dr. Wong is a Member of the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists. She is currently on leave from the University of Toronto, where she is Canada Research Chair in Global Governance and Civil Society and Professor of Political Science. Previously, she was Research Lead at the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society at the University of Toronto. From 2012-2017, she was Director of the Trudeau Center for Peace, Conflict, and Justice at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy.
Dr. Wong’s PhD is from the University of California, San Diego. She did her undergrad at UC Berkeley.
The Vigod Memorial Lecture in Human Rights is organized to honour the legacy of Dr. Bernie Vigod. Dr. Bernie Vigod was a lifelong advocate of human rights. An outstanding teacher and scholar, he was a professor of History at the University of New Brunswick as well as Associate Dean of University’s School of Graduate Studies at the time of his death in 1988. Dr. Vigod served the cause of human rights with distinction. He spoke and published extensively on human rights issues. Dr. Vigod also acted as an advisor to public officials on human rights issues and took a leading role in organizations dedicated to promoting human rights. This lecture series is dedicated to his memory and features distinguished speakers on a wide range of human rights issues.