ASU New College professor wins Surveillance Studies Network award

Professor Greg Wise from the New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences at ASU's West campus was recently announced as the 2017 winner of the Surveillance Studies Network Book Prize.

Wise's 2016 book, "Surveillance and Film," maps out important themes in how popular culture imagines surveillance by examining key feature films that prominently address the subject. The SSN panel of judges were "particularly impressed by its insightful analysis and engaging style."

Drawing on dozens of examples from around the world, Wise analyzes films that focus on those who watch ("Rear Window," "Disturbia," etc.), films that focus on those who are watched ("The Conversation," "Ed TV," etc.), films that feature surveillance societies ("The Handmaid's Tale," "The Truman Show," etc.), surveillance procedural films ("The Naked City," "Eye in the Sky," etc.), and films that interrogate the aesthetics of the surveillance image itself ("Sliver"). Wise uses these films to describe key models of understanding surveillance (like Big Brother, panopticism, or the control society) as well as to raise issues of voyeurism, trust, ethics, technology, visibility, identity, privacy, and control that are essential elements of today's culture of surveillance.

Wise will be honored at the upcoming Surveillance Studies Network conference, held in Denmark on June 7-9.