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'Criminalising Dissent: A Closing Space for Civil Society?' Seminar and roundtable Friday 1 March 2019, University of Brighton, Falmer campus The criminalisation of protest is a growing and worrying trend across the world. While in North America and Western Europe this trend has been researched extensively, the research capacity in England and Wales appears much smaller. But developments in the past decade or so offer an impetus for renewed attention by experts on protest, direct action, repression, policing and law. In his 2016 country visit to the United Kingdom, for instance, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and of Association noted a ‘closing space for civil society’. Specific concerns were raised about the UK’s counter-extremism strategy, the surveillance of political activists, the policing of protests and the Trade Union Act. This seminar and round table discussion will explore the gradual trends in the relationship between criminal justice and protest. Invited speakers will present work-in-progress reports on public order policing and covert surveillance, trials and sentencing, court decisions and legislative changes. Confirmed presenters: Andrea Brock (Sussex), Lydia Dagostino (Kellys Solicitors), Joanna Gilmore (York), Graeme Hayes (Aston), Will Jackson (LJMU) and David Mead (UEA). We want to provide: • A forum to discuss, map and evaluate trends in state responses to protest and dissent. • An open and friendly space to encourage networking and collaborations, especially of senior and early career researchers and to include activists, civil liberties campaigners and practicing lawyers. • A place to disseminate research findings and develop questions for future research. Details: This event is made possible by the generous support of the Centre for Spatial, Environmental and Cultural Politics (SECP) at the University of Brighton and an Innovation Fund Grant by the British Society of Criminology. It will take place at the Falmer campus of the University of Brighton, Friday 1 March 2019 (morning start, finish early afternoon). To register, interested parties should get in touch with the organisers as soon as possible. Please note there are limited places available and applicants will be selected based on the direct relevance of their research, work and/or activism. Organisers: Raphael Schlembach, Deanna Dadusc, Roxana Cavalcanti, Francesca Kilpatrick. Please contact Raphael at r.schlembach@brighton for details. -------------------------------------------------------- MeCCSA mailing list -------------------------------------------------------- To manage your subscription or unsubscribe from the MECCSA list, please visit: https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?SUBED1=MECCSA&A=1 ------------------------------------------------------- MeCCSA is the subject association for the field of media, communication and cultural studies in UK Higher Education. This mailing list is a free service and is not restricted to members. It is an unmoderated list and content reflect the views of those who post to the list and not of MeCCSA as an organisation. MeCCSA recommends that the list be used only for posting of information (for example about events, publications, conferences, lectures) of interest to members or to promote discussion of current issues of wide general interest in the field. Posts to the MeCCSA mailing list are public, indexed by Google, and can be accessed from the JISCMail website (http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/meccsa.html). Any messages posted to the list are subject to the JISCMail acceptable use policy, which states that users should avoid engaging in unreasonable behaviour, or disrupting the general flow of discussion on a list. For further information, please visit: http://www.meccsa.org.uk/ --------------------------------------------------------