International Center for Ethics in the Sciences and Humanities (IZEW)

Department of Media ethics, philosophy of technology & AI

(Some) members of the Ethics Center 2023

The research focus Media Ethics, Philosophy of Technology & AI conducts research from an interdisciplinary perspective on philosophical, political and media science topics that are raised by information technologies as media and tools of a digital society. The focus is currently on concepts and questions of ethics and culture of the digital society in relation to artificial intelligence, data, security, infrastructures, children's rights, digital afterlife, metaverses and media ethics issues of (online) journalism and social media.

Principal investigator

Team

Prof. Dr. Jessica Heesen
Media and information ethics, ethics of artificial intelligence, security ethics, philosophy of technology, social philosophy, philosophy of science

Markus Spöhrer
Digital games and dis/ability, ethics and dis/ability, science and technology studies (STS) and digital media, film and media theory, media surveillance logics, relationships between digital games and films; Project: Der interaktive Blick

Dr. Lou Brandner
AI and data ethics, sociology, qualitative social research

Jana Hecktor
Philosophy of technology, AI, digitalization, machine learning systems, prediction discourses

Matthias Meitzler 
Qualitative social research, sociology of the body, sexuality, knowledge and death, mediatization research.

Dr. Ingrid Stapf
Media and communication ethics, children's media ethics, media pedagogy, practical philosophy
specifically: media regulation, child and youth media protection, digital wellbeing, disinformation and truth, research ethics

Andreas Baur
Infrastruktures × Politics, privacy and data protection, AI, (cyber-) security, technology ethics

Prof. Dr. Marta Severo
Research Fellow / Humboldt Research Fellowship 2023-2026 “Ethics of digital participation”
Full Professor in Communication at the University of Paris Nanterre where she is in charge of the Department of Information and Communication.

Dr. Martin Hennig 
Narratives of digitalization (AI, simulation, surveillance) in fictional and factual media discourses, digital cultures, narratology, transmedia and serial narratives, media and cultural semiotics, media designs of gender and cultural identity, privacy, space and subject theory; Project: Der interaktive Blick

Christopher Zysik
Aesthetics of popular culture, popular music and media culture theory, cultural phenomenology

 

Current projects

IZEW-UNCScientific cooperation and partnership between the Universities of Tübingen and North Carolina at Chapel HillJana Hecktor 
digilog@bwEthical and social implications of “deepfakes” and opportunities for their regulationMaria Pawelec 
PriMetaPrivacy, ethics and IT security in MetaversenMatthias Meitzler2024–2027
PriBizzWeb analytics business models for privacy-by-design and the support of citizens' informational self-determinationJana Hecktor2023–2026
JVMGJapanese Visual Media GraphMartin Hennig, Christopher Zysik2023–2026
FAIRFair Automated and Intelligent RecruitingLou Brandner2023–2025
DiversPrivatDiversity-oriented privacy protection in digital environmentsMartin Hennig2023–2025
KI AllianzAI data platform for business and societyAndreas Baur2023–2025
Plattform Lernende SystemeGermany's Platform for Artificial Intelligence of the Federal Ministry of Education and ResearchJessica Heesen 

Publications (selection)

  • Meitzler, Matthias/Heesen, Jessica/Hennig, Martin/Ammicht Quinn, Regina (2024), Digital Afterlife and the Future of Collective Memory. Memory Studies Review, 1 – 18, doi:10.1163/29498902-202400013
  • Baur, Andreas (2024), European Dreams of the Cloud: Imagining Innovation and Political Control. Geopolitics 29(3), 796-820. doi:10.1080/14650045.2022.2151902
  • Heesen, Jessica (2024), Technikfolgenabschätzung für freie Kunst und Kultur. In: Elisabeth Ehrensperger u.a. (Hg.): Gestreamt, gelikt, flüchtig – schöne neue Kulturwelt? Digitalisierung und Kultur im Licht der Technikfolgenabschätzung (Reihe: Gesellschaft – Technik – Umwelt, Band 25), Nomos: Baden-Baden 2024, 33 – 47, https://doi.org/10.5771/9783748943815
  • Brandner, Lou/ Mahlow, Philipp/Wilken, Anna/Wölke, Annika/Harmouch, Hazar/Hirsbrunner, Simon (2023), How Data Quality Determines AI Fairness: The Case of Automated Interviewing. Proceedings of the 2nd European Workshop on Algorithmic Fairness, Winterthur, Schweiz. https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3442/
  • Heesen, Jessica et al.: Künstliche Intelligenz im Journalismus. Potenziale und Herausforderungen für Medienschaffende. Whitepaper aus der Plattform Lernende Systeme, München 2023, https://doi.org/10.48669/pls_2023-1
  • Schelenz, Laura (2023), Diversity and Social Justice in Technology Design: Reflections on Diversity-Aware Technology. International Journal of Critical Diversity Studies 5(2): 33-53, https://doi.org/10.13169/intecritdivestud.5.2.0033
  • Stapf, Ingrid/Bieß, Cora/Pfetsch, Jan/Paschel, Felix (2023), Respecting children's rights in research ethics and research methods. Journal of Children and Media, doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/17482798.2023.2235815
  • Baur, Andreas (2022), Grenzenlosigkeit in Grenzen. Zur Politik globaler Cloudinfrastrukturen. Politikum 8 (2), 44 - 49. doi:10.46499/2032.2377.
  • Hennig, Martin (2022), Die Apparatur überwinden: Zur Repräsentation von KI in digitalen Spielen. In: Lukman, Christopher (Hg.): Kontrollmaschinen. Zur Dispositivtheorie des Computerspiels. Münster: LIT, 149-179.
  • Heesen, Jessica (2021), Responsible freedom - regulation of online media as democratic challenge. In: Lada Trifonova Price/Karen Sanders/Wendy N. Wyatt (ed.): Routledge Companion to Journalism Ethics, London/New York: Routledge 2021, 433-440.
  • Theilen, Jens T./Andreas Baur/Felix Bieker/Regina Ammicht Quinn/Marit Hansen/Gloria González Fuster (2021), „Feminist data protection: an introduction“, in: Feminist data protection (special issue), Internet Policy Review 10(4). doi: 10.14763/2021.4.1609
  • Pawelec, Maria/Kerstin Schopp/Jessica Heesen (2021),Information Justice in Africa – Insights on Information Ethics Connected to Nelson Mandela's Thinking. Coetzee Bester/Johannes Britz/Rafael Capurro/Rachel Fischer (ed.): Nelson Mandela. A Reader on Information Ethics. International Centre for Information Ethics (ICIE) 2021, 87 - 132.
  • From Principles to Practice. An interdisciplinary framework to operationalise AI ethics, Artificial Intelligence Ethics Impact Group (AIEIGroup), VDE/Bertelsmann Stiftung, Creative Commons 2020.

Completed projects (selection)

SIKIDSafety for children in the digital world - improving regulation, networking stakeholders, implementing children's rights2021 - 2024
EdilifeEthics, law and security of digital survival2022 - 2024 
Bildungsmaterial für LehrkräfteEthics of digitalization and artificial intelligence2023 - 2024
KITQAR AI test and training data quality in the digital working society2021 - 2024
PRIDSPrivacy, democracy and self-determination in the age of AI and globalization 2021 - 2023
WeNetWeNet – The Internet of Us 2019 - 2023
KoBeLU Context-aware learning environment for training and further education 2016 - 2019
Forum Privatheit Forum Privacy and self-determined life in the digital world 2013 - 2021
You can find more completed projects in our archive.