Announcing a call for papers for the fifth annual Student Symposium in Cybersecurity and Public Policy which will be held by Tufts University on Friday March 31 & Saturday April 1, 2023.
All areas of cybersecurity policy are welcome, from economic, legal, political science (including IR), public policy, sociological, to technical with policy implications, with the sole requirement that the work focus on policy issues in cybersecurity. Research submissions are encouraged, but expositions of known approaches to a particular area—a so-called “Systematization of Knowledge” approach—are also welcome. All submissions should include a well-researched citing of the literature. Preference will be given to students. The meeting has two purposes:
- To share research
- To help create a community of young scholars in the new and highly interdisciplinary research area.
Students, whether in undergraduate, professional, MA, MS, JD, or PhD programs, are encouraged to submit. Post-doctoral students are also welcome to do so. Topics of interest include:
- Big data (e.g., implications regarding the use of, policy and legal controls on, etc.).
- Cybersecurity cooperation: policies and regulations to encourage same (domestic, international).
- Cyber espionage.
- Cybersecurity law (e.g., analysis of problems with current domestic or international law, proposed new legislation, etc.).
- Economic impact of cybercrime.
- Electronic voting.
- Human rights in cyberspace.
- Information warfare and deception (including through the use of social media).
- Potential regulatory approaches to solving the “cybersecurity” problem.
- Securing critical infrastructure: policies and processes.
- Sociological impediments to securing cyberspace.
Program
The program will begin Friday, March 31 midday and run through the afternoon of Saturday, April 1. This interdisciplinary meeting will focus on six-ten submissions to the symposium. In the style of working meetings in political science and law, each paper will have a discussant leading the discussion, the purpose of which is to improve the paper prior to publication.
We will discuss two papers on Friday, followed by a keynote given by Sharon Bradford Franklin, Chair of the U.S. Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board. She was formerly Co-Director of the Security & Surveillance Project at the Center for Democracy & Technology as well as Policy Director for the Open Technology Institute.
We will resume Saturday morning with discussions of student papers, ending Saturday afternoon.
Funding
Thanks to the generosity of the Hewlett Foundation, we have travel funding available for students attending from outside the Boston area. The funding is limited, and thus out-of-town students should expect to seek additional sources of funding.
Publication
Accepted papers will be made available online to symposium participants prior to the meeting. After the meeting, we will provide interested students with professional editing help to prepare a short form of the paper for publication; potential venues include Lawfareblog, IEEE Security and Privacy, or, in the case of essays, Journal of Cybersecurity.
We request that papers have not appeared previously and that accepted papers be available on a password-protected site for symposium participants prior to the meeting.
Submissions
Initial submissions should be a short essay of no more than one thousand words describing the proposed work. There is no specific format for this submission, but please use 12 point font. Note that the essay should provide sufficient detail to convince the reader that the proposed research is feasible (this is especially the case given the short time period between initial submission and final version). If the author/authors has/have already made progress on the proposed work, the submission should describe the progress. A bibliography would be useful — that does not count within the word limit. This initial submission is due December 1, 2022.
Final submissions should be written in clear prose accessible to an interdisciplinary research community. In particular, the paper should:
- Have a maximum of 15,000 words excluding bibliography and well-marked appendices;
- Be written so it is accessible to practitioners in other fields (and must avoid jargon);
- Cite appropriate literature; and
- Use a consistent citation format (whether legal, political science or international relations, or computer science is up to the author).
Any questions should be sent to joshua.anderson@tufts.edu.
Important Dates
- Initial submission: December 1, 2022
- Notification of acceptance: January 1, 2023
- Final paper due: February 15, 2023
- Symposium: March 31-April 1, 2023
Submission Form and Instructions
To submit a paper, please email the following information to joshua.anderson@tufts.edu
- Contact Author Name:
- Contact Author Institution (if applicable):
- Contact Author Email Address:
- Additional Authors’ name(s), titles:
- Additional Email Addresses:
- Title of Paper:
- Abstract:
Funding for the 2023 Student Symposium in Cybersecurity Policy was provided by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.