The Bavarian Research Institute for Digital Transformation (bidt), the Center for Advanced Internet Studies (CAIS), Leibniz Institute for Media Research – Hans Bredow Institute (HBI) and the Weizenbaum Institute (WI) invite doctoral and postdoctoral researchers to present their work at the joint Digitalisation Research Seminar – DigiSem.
This year’s Digitalisation Research Seminar is dedicated to Digital Safety as a human-centered, interdisciplinary research field. We aim to bring together early career researchers who examine human and societal risks of digital technologies, including harm arising from bias, dis- and misinformation, loss of control, and institutional misalignment, as well as challenges in risk prevention for vulnerable groups, such as children.
Our goal is to promote interdisciplinary dialogue and networking among early career researchers, and to advance research that contributes to safer, more responsible, and socially sustainable digital systems. Constructive feedback and cross-cutting discussions are central to the seminar.
We invite early career researchers (PhD candidates, postdoctoral researchers, and advanced Master’s students) to submit papers for an interdisciplinary exchange on risks and challenges arising from digital systems that affect human safety, well-being, and societal stability, and goes beyond issues of cybersecurity.
Programme
Monday 21.09.
| 13.00 – 14.00 | Arrival & Lunch |
| 14.00 – 14.20 | Welcome & Introduction |
| 14.20 – 15.20 | Keynote Talk 1: Prof. Lena Kästner |
| 15.20 – 15.45 | Coffee Break |
| 15.45 – 17.45 | Session 1 – Risks of Using AI Sonja Spitzer “Cybersecurity as Individualized Responsibility: Organisational Security Communication and the Responsibilization of Digital Safety“ Joseph Suja “Governing Through Algorithms: The Normalisation of Algorithmic Surveillance in Democratic Systems“ Yuying Wang “Balancing Utility and Fundamental Rights: A comparative analysis of Chinese and EU Law on Facial Recognition Technology“ Insa Schaffernak “Out of scope, out of mind? The influence of unrelated AI advice on clinicians’ diagnostic reasoning during X-ray interpretation“ |
| 17.45 – 18.00 | Refreshments |
| 18.00 – 19.00 | Poster Pitches & Poster Session Valerie Bohn “The Illusion of Sentience – Ethical Implications and Implementation Guideline or Anthropomorphized Social AI and Robots“ Dr. Mariia Pleskach „Rethinking AI Fairness Beyond Explainability in EU AI Law as a Socio-Technical Accountability Approach“ Yizhou Sun „The Neoliberal Code: Extractive Data and Extracted Consent“ Eva Luise Knor „Negotiating Risks: How Lay Users Respond to Generative AI Errors in Political Information Search“ Dr. Jan Grenzebach „The Mechanical Turk 2.0: An Interface to Experiment with Human-AI Interaction Dynamics“ Eva Ziegeltrum et al. „Mapping the Policy Landscape of Social Media Regulation to Improve Youth Mental Health: Towards a Rights-Informed Typology of Access, Usage, Design and Regulatory Environment “ Corinna Canali „Systemic Obscenification as Governance “ Leonhard Kestel & Christoph Kern „Counterfactual Latent Representations: A Neurosymbolic Approach“ |
| 19.00 | Welcome Receptoin & Networking |
Tuesday 22.09.
| 9.00 – 10.30 | Session 2 – Vulnerable Groups Dr. Ekaterina Reznikova “Migrant Platform Workers and Digital Safety: Rethinking Vulnerability in Algorithmic Labour Regimes“ Dr. Silvia Corradi “How to protect children from AI systems risks? A critical approach“ Pooja Lama, Himanshu Panday, Dridhata Silwal, Hameeda Syed & Saashi Windsor “Participatory AI for Resource-Poor Languages: Correcting Moderation Failures through Survivor Knowledge” |
| 10.30 – 11.00 | Coffee Break |
| 11.00 – 12.00 | Keynote Talk 2: Dr. Jens Karschau |
| 12.00 – 12.45 | Lunch Break |
| 12.45 – 14.15 | Session 3 – Social Media Regulation Jakob Berg, Prof. Johannes Breuer & Felix Schmidt “Paid Attention: The Impact of Meta Ads in the 2025 German Federal Election Campaign“ Annabel Schultz & Dorian Tsolak “Speaking the Law’s Language: Helping Digital Safety Researchers Navigate Regulatory Processes“ Zachary Cooper “Surveillance Watermarking: Trading Privacy for AI Disclosure” |
| 14.15 – 14.30 | Closing |
Registration Link