BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//WASP-HS - ECPv6.15.17//NONSGML v1.0//EN
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
METHOD:PUBLISH
X-WR-CALNAME:WASP-HS
X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://wasp-hs.org
X-WR-CALDESC:Events for WASP-HS
REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H
X-Robots-Tag:noindex
X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H
BEGIN:VTIMEZONE
TZID:Europe/Stockholm
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:+0100
TZOFFSETTO:+0200
TZNAME:CEST
DTSTART:20250330T010000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:+0200
TZOFFSETTO:+0100
TZNAME:CET
DTSTART:20251026T010000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:+0100
TZOFFSETTO:+0200
TZNAME:CEST
DTSTART:20260329T010000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:+0200
TZOFFSETTO:+0100
TZNAME:CET
DTSTART:20261025T010000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:+0100
TZOFFSETTO:+0200
TZNAME:CEST
DTSTART:20270328T010000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:+0200
TZOFFSETTO:+0100
TZNAME:CET
DTSTART:20271031T010000
END:STANDARD
END:VTIMEZONE
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Stockholm:20260508T100000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Stockholm:20260508T120000
DTSTAMP:20260825T233619
CREATED:20260501T080056Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260504T073553Z
UID:22598-1778234400-1778241600@wasp-hs.org
SUMMARY:PhD Defense: Emerging AI and Ethics in Higher Education: A Technology Mediation Perspective
DESCRIPTION:On 8 May 2026\, Alexandra Farazouli defends her doctoral thesis\, “Emerging AI and Ethics in Higher Education: A Technology Mediation Perspective”\, at Stockholm University. \nSee event page. \nAbstract\nThe emergence of AI has become a defining issue for higher education worldwide\, and Sweden is no exception. At the same time\, emerging AI technologies reconfigure priorities and valuations within educational practice by mediating teaching and learning and opening new paths for how teachers and students relate to higher education practices. In this context\, AI-mediated practices raise ethical questions that are often presented as unprecedented yet are deeply rooted in longstanding practices in higher education. This thesis undertakes an empirical exploration of AI-mediated practices in higher education\, foregrounding teachers’ perspectives and focusing on the ethical issues arising from such mediations. Drawing on postphenomenology and technology mediation theory\, the thesis examines how teachers perceive and experience emerging AI artefacts (automated grading systems (AGS) and generative AI (GAI) chatbots) in relation to their practices\, and how these artefacts mediate their understandings of what they ought to do and how they ought to act when balancing sometimes competing demands of autonomy and accountability. \nThe thesis is a compilation of four complementary studies. Study I examines the ethical considerations of AGS\, reviewing the literature on AGS and analysing their specificities through a relational ethics approach. This study highlighted that AGS not only introduce technical and procedural considerations but also reconfigure educational practices and relationships in ways that demand ongoing\, situated\, and relationally attuned ethical reflection. Study II is an interview study with AGS developers who are also university teachers using these systems. It examines their expectations\, experiences\, and the disruptions that AGS introduce into assessment practices. The findings underscore the ambivalent role of AGS as both promising and disruptive\, offering efficiency and consistency\, but also introducing ‘new’ frictions and ethical dilemmas. Study III is a study inspired by the Turing test\, followed by focus group interviews with university teachers. It explores how GAI chatbots mediate teachers’ perceptions of their assessment practices. The findings indicate that the presence of GAI chatbots\, allowing the possibility of AI-generated writing\, shapes evaluation practices\, prompting teachers to question authorship and\, in some cases\, reinforcing mistrust within the student–teacher relationship. Study IV is a focus group interview study examining how teachers experience and interpret the emergence of GAI and how it mediates their perceptions of their professional roles. Participants described GAI as both disruptive and potentially transformative. They were compelled to reconsider assessment formats\, teaching priorities\, and their responsibility to foster critical and ethical engagement with technology. \nThe combined findings of the four studies show that the emergence of AI unsettles established practices and intensifies the uncertainties that characterise educational situations\, placing greater demands on teachers’ professional judgment. The thesis also argues that the emergence of AI exposes and amplifies longstanding ethical issues\, such as fairness\, academic integrity\, and equity\, reshaping how these issues are understood and enacted as the technologies become embedded in higher education practices. \nSee full thesis. \nSupervisors\nCormac McGrath\, Associate Professor\, Department of Education\, Stockholm University.Teresa Cerratto Pargman\, Professor\, Department of Computer and Systems Sciences\, Stockholm University.Klara Bolander Laksov\, Professor\, Department of Education\, Stockholm University. \nOpponent\nWayne Holmes\, Professor\, Institute of Education\, University College London (UCL).
URL:https://wasp-hs.org/event3/phd-defense-emerging-ai-and-ethics-in-higher-education-a-technology-mediation-perspective/
LOCATION:Lilla hörsalen\, Naturhistoriska riksmuseet (The Swedish Museum of Natural History)\, Frescativägen 40\, Stockholm\, Sweden
CATEGORIES:PhD Defence,PhD Defense
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://wasp-hs.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/PhD-Defense-graphic.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Stockholm:20260508T140000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Stockholm:20260508T170000
DTSTAMP:20260825T233619
CREATED:20260506T121806Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260506T121808Z
UID:22712-1778248800-1778259600@wasp-hs.org
SUMMARY:PhD Defense: Ethical Reasoning in Tech Work: From Individual Responsibility to Collective Action
DESCRIPTION:On 8 May 2026\, Kristina Popova defends her doctoral thesis\, “Ethical Reasoning in Tech Work: From Individual Responsibility to Collective Action”\, at KTH Royal Institute of Technology. \nSee event page. \nAbstract\nTechnology production is a complex process that requires the accumulation of resources and in which very little is done individually. Given the fragmentation of tech development and the limits of individual action\, how much can tech workers affect the tech they produce? Do they care about the tech they are building and its implications for the world? Who should act to ensure that technology is “ethical”? What are the possibilities for individual and collective action that exist in tech workplaces? These are the questions I aim to answer in my dissertation. \nThis dissertation is an interdisciplinary project connecting four studies with the methods from design research\, ethnomethodology and sociology. The papers are published within the fields of human-computer interaction (HCI) and computer supported cooperative work (CSCW) and positioned within the tradition of studying ethics in practice\, which approaches ethics by studying the work practices in specific tech organisations. Theoretically\, my work is grounded in the philosophical tradition of ethics of care with its focus on concrete situated actions instead of omnirelevant rules\, in the ethnomethodological tradition of respecifying theoretical phenomena as matters of practice\, and in moral anthropology with its focus on ethics as shaped by communities. \nThe four papers combined in the thesis explore the ethical reasoning of tech practitioners in academic settings\, government officials working with AI in Sweden\, and technology practitioners working in commercial companies in Europe. I rely on a variety of qualitative data: (1) a video-ethnography of design ideation sessions at the university; (2) an interview-study of ethical responsibility by tech practitioners in academia\, governmental sector and the industry; (3) a a workshop-based study of voicing discomfort (critique) in a design workshop with academic; (4) an interview-based study of ethics discourses in tech companies in Europe. The studies contribute to design and HCI with an empirical research of ethical reasoning in everyday design work. \nThe thesis aims to advance an anthropological\, human-centred take on ethics in HCI. I argue in favour of including affect and emotion of tech practitioners into the discussion on ethics in HCI and emphasise the limitations of an individualistic take on ethics. Affect is important for connecting the level of everyday practices with structural power relations. Understanding the limitations of individual action and focusing on the potential for collective action instead is important for balancing responsibility with power. This thesis also draws attention to the inequality within the tech sector as a factor that hinders the possibility for forming a shared agenda and engaging in collective action. \nSee full thesis. \nSupervisors\nRobert Comber\, Associate Professor.Airi Lampinen\, Professor at Stockholm University.Kristina Höök\, Professor at KTH Royal Institute of Technology.  \nOpponent\nKatie Shilton\, Professor at University of Maryland\, College Park\, Maryland\, US
URL:https://wasp-hs.org/event3/phd-defense-ethical-reasoning-in-tech-work-from-individual-responsibility-to-collective-action/
LOCATION:Q2\, KTH Royal Institute of Technology\, Malvinas Väg 10\, Stockholm\, Sweden
CATEGORIES:PhD Defence,PhD Defense
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://wasp-hs.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/PhD-Defense-Kristina-Popova.jpg
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR