Spring Joint Legal Studies Seminar April 23

The University of Waterloo and St. Jerome’s University are holding a joint legal studies seminar Thursday, April 23, on how law is handling sexual violence in the platform era. (uwaterloo.ca) The talk runs from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. Eastern on April 23 and features Dr. Elaine Craig, a law professor at Dalhousie University. The event page lists the session title as “Law, technology, and the Platformization of sex: Sexual Violence in a Data Driven Era.” (uwaterloo.ca) Craig’s abstract says mainstream pornography now depends on free online distribution and platform-style features that are “data driven, quasi-interactive and communal.” The page says those shifts have changed porn’s social role and raised new questions about protecting “sexual integrity,” especially for women and girls. (uwaterloo.ca) The seminar centers on a legal problem that extends beyond one campus event: how to regulate large online platforms when harm is shaped by recommendation systems, user data, and scale. Craig’s abstract says lawmakers and policy makers have not adequately regulated or held accountable the “large, monopolistic corporations” behind that model. (uwaterloo.ca) That focus fits the way legal studies is taught at St. Jerome’s. The department says the field examines what law is and how legal institutions are shaped by political, social, economic, philosophical, and cultural structures. (uwaterloo.ca) The seminar series itself is a recurring partnership, not a one-off lecture. St. Jerome’s says the Joint Legal Studies Seminar Series is biannual and is hosted by the Departments of Sociology and Legal Studies at the University of Waterloo and St. Jerome’s University. (uwaterloo.ca) The April 21 Daily Bulletin notice says the event is open to members of the campus community. The St. Jerome’s event page also includes a Zoom registration option, alongside the time and speaker details. (uwaterloo.ca 1) (uwaterloo.ca 2) Craig’s research areas include constitutional law, criminal law, evidence law, law of sexual assault, feminist legal theory, and criminal law ethics, according to the event page. Those are the fields she brings into a one-hour campus discussion on April 23. (uwaterloo.ca)