Book Talk: Abolishing Surveillance

Book Talk: Abolishing Surveillance: A Brief History of Copwatching, Community Organizing, and Media Activism

Friday, September 27, 6:00 pm
Michelson Theater, 721 Broadway, 6th Floor

Abolishing Surveillance offers the first in-depth study of how various communities and activist organizations are resisting such efforts by integrating digital media activism into their actions against state surveillance and repression and for a better world. The book focuses on Latinx copwatching groups in New York City, Muslim and Arab American communities in Minneapolis, undercover animal rights activists, and counter-summit protesters to explore the ways in which government surveillance and repression impacts them and, more importantly, their different but related online and offline tactics and strategies employed for self-determination and liberation.   

Christopher Robé is a Professor in the School of Communication and Multimedia Studies at Florida Atlantic University. He writes about how various communities and social movements incorporate media activism into their community organizing. He recently published Abolishing Surveillance: Digital Media Activism and State Repression (PM Press 2023).

With Dennis Flores, one of the founders of El Grito de Sunset Park.

Moderated by Anthony Dominguez, Adjunct Lecturer at City Tech - CUNY. His current research focuses on the history of screens in Times Square and the ways in which media and public-space are shaped by broader socio-economic structures and power dynamics.

Reception to follow.

This is an in-person event, open to the public. Prior registration is required at least 24 hours before the start of the event. Non-NYU attendees will receive emailed instructions for building access and may be asked to present a government-issued photo ID upon arrival. NYU attendees must present their NYU ID.