TPRC Panel Submission: Internet Governance Policy Research Impacts: Mapping, Methods, & Messages

Bringing together communication; science, technology studies; political science; law; and sociology scholars; and a policy specialist examining often controversial and quite complex arenas of internet governance to highlight what works in crossing scholarly, technical, and policy communities’ communication, this panel specifically addresses the challenges of doing research and messaging findings relevant to emerging internet policy arenas. As the technical complexity of these arenas continues to increase, along with a plethora of research approaches, study methods, and policy players in often intersecting, multiplex, cross-cultural and inter-institutional settings, there is a need to highlight what works and to examine emergent researcher/technical expert/policy-maker roles. Particular attention is paid to the fuzzy intersections of infrastructure and policy controversies as well as to the legal and cultural settings in which these intersections are embedded. The panel will address the following questions: Focusing on emergent internet governance policy questions that can span national borders, involve cross-cultural communication (where culture refers to organizational and technical cultures as well as national and diasporic cultures) and on multi-disciplinary methodological approaches, what are the implications for designing research, disseminating findings and collaborating across researcher and policy-maker divides? The ultimate aim of this panel is to help shape future research agendas/research approaches to craft both methods and messages that can be of use to researchers and policy makers globally and locally. It should serve as a catalyst for the TPRC participants (whether researchers or policy makers or practitioners) to take away strengths and weaknesses of multi-disciplinary and collaborative research approaches in terms of possible impacts on policy and practice and to identify novel research approaches that can incorporate policy makers, practitioners, and researchers to strengthen policy impacts especially in controversial internet governance arenas. Panel Composition & Perspectives/Diversity This panel is diverse in multiple aspects including race, gender, generational, disciplines and methodologies. Each panelist will provide distinctive perspectives on their methodological approaches and emergent opportunities related to these approaches, their work with policy makers or as a policy specialist, and the messages stemming from their findings. The panelists are: Cogburn, a political science and communication scholar, whose work focuses on those with disabilities and their access to internet policy especially in the international organization arena; Daskal, a legal scholar and Open Society Fellow, whose work examines security and rights issues regarding cross-border data flow; Denardis, an engineer and communication scholar, whose work highlights the intersections of infrastructure and policy including cyber security issues; Hill, a policy specialist at DOC/NTIA and also a New America Foundation Cybersecurity Policy Fellow; Levinson, as Moderator, a sociology and communication scholar, whose work focuses on knowledge transfer/interorganizational policy learning/capacity-building in multi stakeholder internet policy discussions including cyber/human security and Musiani, a Science and Technology Studies scholar, focusing on socio-technical controversies including Russia as “a laboratory of digital resistance”. Participant Names & Affiliations Nanette S. Levinson*, Moderator, School of International Service, American University Derrick L. Cogburn*, Kogod College of Business & School of International Service, American University Jennifer Daskal, Washington College of Law, American University Laura Denardis*, School of Communication, American University Jonah Force Hill, US Department of Commerce/NTIA Francesca Musiani, Institute for Communication Sciences, CNRS, France & Editor, Internet Policy Review All panelists have agreed to participate in TPRC 2018. Faculty Co-directors, Internet Governance Lab