Stanford University

Science and Technology

Collecting, Protecting, and Analyzing Human Rights Data

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Abstract 
There will be a discussion of two different examples of liberation technology, one used to collect and protect human rights data, and the other used to analyze it. Martus is a software program that encrypts and remotely backs up data, designed for and used widely by human rights monitors and advocates to protect witness reports and other sensitive human rights data. the focus will be on the security design of Martus and how we addressed the inevitable tradeoffs with usability, as well as the reasons for and consequences of our choice to make Martus free and open source. The legitimacy of human rights advocates is based on their claim to speak truth about a human rights situation, but our ability to know the truth of what is happening on the ground is often severely limited. Founding conclusions on anecdotes or observable events alone can misinterpret both trends over time and the relative distribution of violence with respect to regions, ethnicity or perpetrators. Through the careful application of rigorous statistical methods, the limitations of incomplete data can sometimes be overcome, enabling scientifically-based claims about the total extent and patterns of human rights violations. Also discussed will be how this kind of analysis is enabled by technology, including computational statistical methods, and tools like R and version control to make the analysis auditable and replicable.

Jeff Klingner is a computer scientist with the Human Rights Data Analysis Group at Benetech, where he codes and runs data analysis addressing a variety of human rights questions, including command responsibility of high-level officials in Chad and Guatemala, and mortality estimation in several countries, including India, Sierra Leone, and Guatemala. His technical focus is on data deduplication, machine learning, data visualization, and analysis auditability and replicability. He earned a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Stanford University.

Wallenberg Theater

Jeff Klingner Computer Science Consultant Speaker Benetech
Seminars
Liberation Technology Seminar Series
Program on Liberation Technology

After the Arab Spring: The Current State of the Internet & Democracy Debate

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Abstract
The talk will discuss the impact that recent events in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Syria and other MENA countries has had on the debate about the Internet & democracy in general and on the future of the so-called "Internet freedom agenda" in particular. The talk will also explore the possibility of finding some workable middle ground between cyber-utopianism and cyber-dystopianism, attempt to articulate what a more culturally-sensitive approach to studying Internet & democratization may look like and argue for the growing relevance of such approach, particularly as a way to avoid essentialist attitudes towards technology. 
 
Evgeny Morozov is the author of the Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom, published earlier this year and a visiting scholar with the Liberation Technology program at Stanford University. He's also a Schwartz fellow at New America Foundation and a frequent contributor to national and international media on questions of technology and politics. 

Wallenberg Theater

Evgeny Morozov

Program on Liberation Technology
616 Serra Street E108
Stanford, California 94305

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Evgeny Morozov is a visiting scholar in the Liberation Technology Program at Stanford University and a Scwhartz fellow at the New America Foundation. He is also a blogger and contributing editor to Foreign Policy Magazine. He is a former Yahoo fellow at the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University and a former fellow at the Open Society Institute, where he remains on the board of the Information Program. His book The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom was published by PublicAffairs in January 2011.

Evgeny Morozov Visiting Scholar, Program on Liberation Technology Speaker Stanford University
Seminars
Liberation Technology Seminar Series
Program on Liberation Technology

How Does Democracy Lead to Transparency?: Enacting Freedom of Information Laws around the World

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Abstract

That democratic governments tend to be more transparent than autocracies is a relatively well-established fact. Yet, we know relatively little about how they become so. Yuko Kasuya will explore this mechanism by focusing on the policy-making processes of the freedom of information acts (FOIAs) around the world. The current majority view holds that under democracies, self-interested politicians embark on transparency reforms because doing so brings them political benefits, especially in terms of winning elections. In contrast, Kasuya will argue that while electoral competition may influence the timing of transparency reform, the degree of reform (FOIA strength) depends on the extent to which the civil society advocacy groups are active in the legislative process. Kasuya will examine this claim through the cross-national statistical analyses (as of 2011, about 75 democracies have enacted a FOIA) as well as the comparative case study of India, Spain, and the United Kingdom. 

Yuko Kasuya is a visiting scholar at the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law at Stanford University and an associate professor at the Faculty of Law, Keio University, Tokyo, Japan (on leave). Her current research explores conditions for transparency reform, with the focus on the recent global spread of Freedom of Information Acts (FOIAs). She examines how partisan politics influence the policy-making processes as well as the robustness of FOIAs using both quantitative and qualitative analyses.

She is the author of Presidential Bandwagon: Parties and Party Systems in the Philippines (Keio University Press, 2008), co-editor and contributor of Comparative Politics of Civil Society (Keio University Press, 2007, in Japanese), Politics of Change in the Philippines (Anvil, 2010), Comparative Politics of Asian Presidentialism (Minerva, 2010, in Japanese). She has also published articles in Electoral Studies, The Pacific Affairs, and Party Politics.

Kasuya holds a PhD in International Affairs from UC San Diego, an MA in Development Studies from Institute of Social Studies (Netherlands), and a BA in Political Science from Keio University (Japan). Her research has been funded by the Abe fellowship, Fullbright scholarship, Rotary scholarship, and other sources.

Encina Ground Floor Conference Room

Yuko Kasuya

616 Serra St.
Encina Hall
Stanford, CA 94305-6055

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Visiting Scholar
YukoWeb.JPG MA, PhD

Yuko Kasuya is a Visiting Scholar at the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law at Stanford University and an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law, Keio University, Tokyo, Japan (on leave). Her current research explores conditions for transparency reform, with the focus on the recent global spread of Freedom of Information Acts (FOIAs). She examines how partisan politics influence the policy-making processes as well as the robustness of FOIAs using both quantitative and qualitative analyses.

She is the author of Presidential Bandwagon: Parties and Party Systems in the Philippines (Keio University Press, 2008), co-editor and contributor of Comparative Politics of Civil Society (Keio University Press, 2007, in Japanese), Politics of Change in the Philippines (Anvil, 2010), Comparative Politics of Asian Presidentialism (Minerva, 2010, in Japanese). She has also published articles in Electoral Studies, The Pacific Affairs, and Party Politics.

Kasuya holds a PhD in International Affairs from UC San Diego, an MA in Development Studies from Institute of Social Studies (Netherlands), and a BA in Political Science from Keio University (Japan). Her research has been funded by the Abe fellowship, Fullbright scholarship, Rotary scholarship, and other sources.

Yuko Kasuya Visiting Scholar Speaker CDDRL
Seminars

Policy perspectives from the Obama Administration

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Jeremy M. Weinstein is Associate Professor of Political Science and Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. He serves as director of the Center for African Studies, and is an affiliated faculty member at CDDRL and CISAC. He is also a non-resident fellow at the Center for Global Development in Washington, D.C.

Weinstein recently returned to Stanford after serving as Director for Development and Democracy on the National Security Council staff at the White House between 2009 and 2011. In this capacity, he played a key role in the National Security Council’s work on global development, democracy and human rights, and anti-corruption, with a global portfolio. Among other issues, Weinstein was centrally involved in the development of President Obama’s Policy Directive on Global Development and associated efforts to reform and strengthen USAID, promote economic growth, and increase the effectiveness of U.S. foreign assistance across the board; led efforts at the White House to develop a robust international anti-corruption agenda, which included the creation of the G-20 Action Plan on Anti-Corruption, the design and launch of the Open Government Partnership, and the successful legislative passage and subsequent internationalization of a ground-breaking extractive industries disclosure requirement; and played a significant role in developing the Administration’s policy in response to the Arab Spring, including focused work on Egypt, Tunisia, Bahrain, Syria, Yemen, and others. Before joining the White House staff, Weinstein served as an advisor to the Obama campaign and, during the transition, served as a member of the National Security Policy Working Group and the Foreign Assistance Agency Review Team.

His research focuses on civil wars and political violence; ethnic politics and the political economy of development; and democracy, accountability, and political change. He is the author of Inside Rebellion: The Politics of Insurgent Violence (Cambridge University Press), which received the William Riker Prize for the best book on political economy. He is also the co-author of Coethnicity: Diversity and the Dilemmas of Collective Action (Russell Sage Foundation), which received the Gregory Luebbert Award for the best book in comparative politics. He has published articles in the American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, Annual Review of Political Science, Journal of Conflict Resolution, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Journal of Democracy, World Policy Journal, and the SAIS Review. Selected publications include: “Handling and Manhandling Civilians in Civil War” (APSR 2006), which received the Sage Prize and Gregory Luebbert Award, and “Why Does Ethnic Diversity Undermine Public Goods Provision (APSR 2007), which received the Heinz Eulau Award and the Michael Wallerstein Award. He also received the Dean’s Award for Distinguished Teaching at Stanford in 2007. Weinstein obtained a BA with high honors from Swarthmore College, and an MA and PhD in political economy and government from Harvard University.

CISAC Conference Room

Jeremy Weinstein Associate Professor of Political Science, Senior Fellow at FSI Speaker Affiliated faculty member at CDDRL
Seminars

TBD

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Michael McFaul is the former director of CDDRL and deputy director of FSI at Stanford University. He also is the Peter and Helen Bing Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, where he co-directs the Iran Democracy Project, as well as Professor of Political Science at Stanford University. 

Dr. McFaul is also a non-resident Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Eurasia Foundation, the Firebird Fund, Freedom House, the International Forum for Democratic Studies of the National Endowment for Democracy, and the International Research and Exchange Board (IREX).

He is the author and editor of several monographs including, with Anders Aslund, Revolution in Orange: The Origins of Ukraine's Democratic Breakthrough (2006) with Nikolai Petrov and Andrei Ryabov, Between Dictatorship and Democracy: Russian Postcommunist Political Reform (2004); with Kathryn Stoner Weiss, After the Collapse of Communism: Comparative Lessons of Transitions (2004); with Timothy Colton, Popular Choice and Managed Democracy: The Russian Elections of 1999 and 2000 (2003); Russia's Unfinished Revolution: Political Change from Gorbachev to Putin (2001); and with Tova Perlmutter, Privatization, Conversion and Enterprise Reform in Russia (1995). He serves on the editorial boards of Current History, Journal of Democracy, Demokratizatsiya, Perspectives on European Politics and Society, Post-Soviet Affairs, and The Washington Quarterly. He has served as a consultant for numerous companies and government agencies.

Professor McFaul comments frequently in the national media on American foreign policy and international politics. He has appeared on all major television and radio networks, while his opeds have appeared in The Chicago Tribune, The International Herald Tribune, The Los Angeles Times, The Moscow Times, The New Republic, The New York Times, The San Jose Mercury News, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Washington Times and The Weekly Standard.

Dr. McFaul was born and raised in Montana. He received his B.A. in International Relations and Slavic Languages and his M.A. in Slavic and East European Studies from Stanford University in 1986. He was awarded a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford where he completed his Ph.D. in International Relations in 1991.

Dr. McFaul is currently on leave serving as the Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Russia and Eurasian Affairs at the National Security Council, where he is considered to be one of the top five national security players in government (The Washington Independent).

CISAC Conference Room

Michael McFaul Former Director of CDDRL and Deputy Director Speaker FSI
Seminars

The Illusion of Democracy: How Morocco's Absolute Monarchy Managed the Arab Spring

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Ahmed Benchemsi is a visiting scholar at Stanford University's Program on Arab Reform and Democracy at the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law. His focus is on the democratic grassroots movement that recently burgeoned in Morocco, as in Tunisia and Egypt. Ahmed researches how and under what circumstances a handful of young Facebook activists managed to infuse democratic spirit which eventually inspired hundreds of thousands, leading them to hit the streets in massive protests. He investigates whether this actual trend will pave the way for genuine democratic reform or for the traditional political system's reconfiguration around a new balance of powers - or both.  

Before joining Stanford, Ahmed was the publisher and editor of Morocco's two best-selling newsweeklies TelQuel (French) and Nishan (Arabic), which he founded in 2001 and 2006, respectively. Covering politics, business, society and the arts, Ahmed's magazines were repeatedly cited by major media such as CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera and more, as strong advocates of democracy and secularism in the Middle East and North Africa.

Ahmed received awards from the European Union and Lebanon's Samir Kassir Foundation, notably for his work on the "Cult of personality" surrounding Morocco's King. He also published op-eds in Le Monde and Newsweek where he completed fellowships.

Ahmed received his M.Phil in Political Science in 1998 from Paris' Institut d'Etudes Politiques (aka "Sciences Po"), his M.A in Development Economics in 1995 from La Sorbonne, and his B.A in Finance in 1994 from Paris VIII University.

CISAC Conference Room

Ahmed Benchemsi Visiting Scholar Program on Arab Reform and Democracy Speaker CDDRL
Seminars

Lost (and Found) in Transition: Democratic Successes and Failures in the post-war Era

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Kathryn Stoner-Weiss is a senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute, deputy director of CDDRL, and faculty director of the Ford Dorsey Program in International Policy Studies at Stanford University. Prior to coming to Stanford, she was on the faculty for eight years in the Department of Politics and the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University. She also served previously as visiting associate professor of Political Science at Columbia University and assistant professor of political science at McGill University, Canada. Dr. Stoner-Weiss's research focuses on comparative state-building and effective governance, political economy of developing countries, and Russian domestic and international politics. She is the author of two books on Russian federalism and regional politics, as well as many books and articles on the same subject. She is also co-editor (with Michael McFaul) of After the Collapse of Communism: Comparative Lessons of Transition.

CISAC Conference Room

Kathryn Stoner

FSI
Stanford University
Encina Hall C140
Stanford, CA 94305-6055

(650) 736-1820 (650) 724-2996
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Satre Family Senior Fellow, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
kathryn_stoner_1_2022_v2.jpg MA, PhD

Kathryn Stoner is the Mosbacher Director of the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law (CDDRL), and a Senior Fellow at CDDRL and the Center on International Security and Cooperation at FSI. From 2017 to 2021, she served as FSI's Deputy Director. She is Professor of Political Science (by courtesy) at Stanford and she teaches in the Department of Political Science, and in the Program on International Relations, as well as in the Ford Dorsey Master's in International Policy Program. She is also a Senior Fellow (by courtesy) at the Hoover Institution.

Prior to coming to Stanford in 2004, she was on the faculty at Princeton University for nine years, jointly appointed to the Department of Politics and the Princeton School for International and Public Affairs (formerly the Woodrow Wilson School). At Princeton she received the Ralph O. Glendinning Preceptorship awarded to outstanding junior faculty. She also served as a Visiting Associate Professor of Political Science at Columbia University, and an Assistant Professor of Political Science at McGill University. She has held fellowships at Harvard University as well as the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, DC. 

In addition to many articles and book chapters on contemporary Russia, she is the author or co-editor of six books: "Transitions to Democracy: A Comparative Perspective," written and edited with Michael A. McFaul (Johns Hopkins 2013);  "Autocracy and Democracy in the Post-Communist World," co-edited with Valerie Bunce and Michael A. McFaul (Cambridge, 2010);  "Resisting the State: Reform and Retrenchment in Post-Soviet Russia" (Cambridge, 2006); "After the Collapse of Communism: Comparative Lessons of Transitions" (Cambridge, 2004), coedited with Michael McFaul; and "Local Heroes: The Political Economy of Russian Regional" Governance (Princeton, 1997); and "Russia Resurrected: Its Power and Purpose in a New Global Order" (Oxford University Press, 2021).

She received a BA (1988) and MA (1989) in Political Science from the University of Toronto, and a PhD in Government from Harvard University (1995). In 2016 she was awarded an honorary doctorate from Iliad State University, Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia.

Download full-resolution headshot; photo credit: Rod Searcey.

Mosbacher Director, Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law
Professor of Political Science (by courtesy), Stanford University
Senior Fellow (by courtesy), Hoover Institution
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Kathryn Stoner-Weiss Senior Fellow at FSI, Deputy Director of CDDRL Speaker
Seminars

Mobile-for-Development Meets Human-Centered Design: Field Experiments in Kenya

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*******NOTE CHANGE OF LOCATION*******

Abstract
The proliferation of information and communication technology in even the lowest-income communities has created space for innovative ICT-based approaches to global poverty. However, projects of this kind are often ineffective because they focus excessively on technological solutions and are inattentive to user needs, preferences, and capacities. This seminar will present four projects that attempt to overcome these limitations in Kenya using "human-centered design" -- an approach to design that is anchored in ethnographic engagement with end-users.

One of the season’s highlights is a panel of students who participated in the innovative class taught by Joshua Cohen and Terry Winograd at the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (d.school). On November 17, four teams will present their new ICT designs to mitigate water problems and other issues in the slums of Kibera, Kenya. For those who wish to get a taste of this much sought after course, this talk will prove invaluable.

John A. and Cynthia Fry Gunn Building,
Koret Taube Conference Room, 366 Galvez
Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research

Nan Zhang Speaker Stanford University
Jess Auerbach Speaker Stanford University
Eric Ruth Speaker Stanford University
Sunny Jeon Speaker Stanford University
Seminars
Liberation Technology Seminar Series
Program on Liberation Technology

Global Inequalities, Performance Gaps, and Mobile Innovations

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Abstract
Paul Kim will share his long journey that has been focused on devising, offering, and evaluating educational access to the underserved children in developing regions of the world. In shedding light on how these fortuitous events, this narrative account of educational progress and change shares the research outcomes of a variety of mobile technology-integration projects at the K-12 level including: (1) literacy development in Mexico, (2) mobile math learning in California and India, (3) executive functioning assessment in Palestine, and (4) mobile science learning in El Salvador and India. Each country and school visited has its own unique story or set of stories and outcomes that can guide future developments of mobile learning technology including educational games, e-books, and other applications.

Paul Kim is the Assistant Dean for Technology & CTO for Stanford University School of Education. He is one of researchers for Programmable Open Mobile Internet (POMI) http://pomi.stanford.edu. He has been conducting research with multidisciplinary approaches and teaching graduate courses on technology-enabled empowerment and entrepreneurship. He is also working with numerous international organizations in developing mobile empowerment solutions for extremely underserved communities in developing countries. In the higher education space, he advises investment bankers and technology ventures focused on e-learning, knowledge management, and mobile communication solutions. His due-diligence engagements include early-stage angel funding and also later-stage private equity-based investments for large education enterprises.

Wallenberg Theater

Paul Kim Speaker Stanford University
Seminars
Liberation Technology Seminar Series
Program on Liberation Technology

Cameras Everywhere: Meeting the Challenges at the Intersection of Human Rights, Video and Technology

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Abstract

Recently, citizen video has played a central role in mobilizing people and informing the world about countries in crisis.  The lines between the human rights defender, the citizen activist, and the journalist are blurring.  All document violations as well as re-shape existing content. A world of ubiquitous video raises new opportunities to reveal evidence and stories, challenge propaganda, and galvanize publics. It also raises challenges: how to address the the ‘public square’ role of Facebook and YouTube; how to protect anonymity, privacy and safety; how to determine veracity with increasing volumes of content; how to turn visual evidence into real change; and how to highlight less visible struggles. This talk will provide an overview of these challenges and offer concrete recommendations on how to make video-for-change safer, more ethical and more effective. We will showcase the SecureSmartCam, a collaboration between WITNESS and the Guardian Project that attempts to address the needs around online and mobile human rights video.

Sam Gregory helps people use the power of the moving image to create change. He is the Program Director at the human rights organization WITNESS (www.witness.org), where he supervises initiatives that partner on impactful campaigns with grassroots activists, and train and support the growing number of video activists to use video safely, effectively and ethically. Within WITNESS ‘Cameras Everywhere’ Leadership Initiative he identifies solutions to the challenges, and ways to capitalize on the opportunities, presented by increasingly ubiquitous video for human rights - highlighted in the September 2011 'Cameras Everywhere' report.

Sam has created training tools and programs including the WITNESS Video Advocacy Institute, was lead editor on ‘Video for Change’ (Pluto Press, 2005) and teaches ‘Human Rights Advocacy Using Video and Related Multimedia’ as an Adjunct Lecturer at the Harvard Kennedy School. Sam graduated from the University of Oxford and completed a Masters in Public Policy as a Kennedy Memorial Scholar at Harvard.

Bryan Nunez has been at WITNESS (www.witness.org), the leading global organization training and supporting people to use video in human rights advocacy, since 2002. He oversees technology for the organization as well as the development of projects like the Hub, a site for citizen human rights media, and the Secure Smart Cam, a camera-phone app for human rights activists.  Prior to WITNESS, he was a technology strategist and consultant on a variety of projects ranging from online banking to interactive television.  He is an alumnus of the Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU and has a BA in anthropology from UC Berkeley.

Wallenberg Theater

Sam Gregory Program Director Speaker Witness
Bryan Nunez Technology Manager Speaker Witness
Seminars
Liberation Technology Seminar Series
Program on Liberation Technology
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