The one about titles
Challenges in academic naming
Hello, dear reader, and welcome to another issue of AI, Law, and Otter Things! Today’s newsletter goes back to one of my usual templates: first, a rant about something; then, reading recommendations, followed by job opportunities and calls for papers; finally, an otter. Long-time readers have probably noticed that the rant can either be about something within my areas of competence (such as recent developments in AI regulation) or be a meta-commentary about scholarly life or something. Today’s rant belongs to the second category, so please feel free to skip ahead to the recommendations if that’s not interesting to you. No hard feelings.
A paper by any other name…?
If you’re sticking around, let’s discuss titles and how to create them. Titles are names, and names can be powerful things. They are among our first sources of information about a blog post, an article, a book, or anything else.1 As such, they command our attention, at least for the split second that we might need to decide whether we will look at the abstract or introduction (or the blurbs in the book cover). This is even more true now that we often discover stuff to read on social media or through online searches: even though both sources often provide more information, the contact with the title will make us open the link before it vanishes in the timeline.2 A good title can be the difference between a paper that is read and one that falls into the memory dump.
Even after first contact, titles still leave an impression on us, as they set up our expectations for what we are about to read. A clever title sets us up with the expectation that we are about to read something worthwhile,3 a formulaic title may prime us for a mechanical reading, or a failed attempt to be clever might put us in an adversarial mood. All in all, the title of a piece of writing should not be chosen lightly.
I’m not very good with titles. As of today, I am happy with precisely two of the titles I’ve given to papers and other texts.4 And it is not for want of trying. The “keywords: longer explanation” formula feels a bit clunky, especially as my choice of keywords tends to be quite dull. I have also tried to use shorter titles without a colon, but my attempts usually feel generic or uninformative. In short, none of the usual formulas has helped me produce exciting titles.
Sometimes, I am inclined to compensate for these tendencies by relying on humour or references. But, since I was raised by wolves on the internet, my sense of humour might not translate as well to more serious venues. References to pop culture, let alone internet subcultures, can become dated so quickly, and I am afraid I lack the high culture to conjure titles with lots of gravitas. Given these constraints, self-censorship leads me to stick to tried and true—and hence forgettable—titles for my work.
Yet, some people are very good at doing this. My doctoral supervisor, for example, manages to conjure some powerful images with her titles.5 Another example I enjoy is Ohm and Reid’s “Regulating Software When Everything Has Software”. Puns can also work well, especially if subtle, as in this tech law classic by Lilian Edwards and Michael Veale. Even the overused colon-based title can be interesting if the components are appealing. So, dear reader, I beseech you: how do you come up with interesting titles? What examples do you appreciate (especially, but not only, in tech law) and why? Suggestions and examples (or counterexamples!) are much appreciated.
Recommendations
In addition to the texts linked in the previous paragraphs, see:
Michael D Birnhack, ‘Reverse Engineering Informational Privacy Law’ (2012) 15 Yale J L & Tech 24.
Damiano Canale, ‘The Opacity of Law: On the Hidden Impact of Experts’ Opinion on Legal Decision-Making’ (2021) 40 Law and Philosophy 509
Francis Fukuyama, ‘In Defense of the Deep State’ [2023] Asia Pacific Journal of Public Administration.
Ivana Isailović, ‘Critical Approaches in EU Law – Still a Blindspot’ (Transformative Private Law, 28 September 2023)
Cedric Jenart, Outsourcing Rulemaking Powers: Constitutional limits and national safeguards (Oxford University Press 2022).
Matthijs M Maas and José Jaime Villalobos Ruiz, ‘International AI Institutions: A Literature Review of Models, Examples, and Proposals’ (Legal Priorities Project, 2023).
Silverio Martínez-Fernández and others, ‘Software Engineering for AI-Based Systems: A Survey’ (2022) 31 ACM Trans Softw Eng Methodol 1.
Beyond academia, I have two audiovisual recommendations. Our Flag Means Death is such a lovely show, which is now back for a second season. The first two episodes did not engage me fully, but the third one delivers. So, try to watch it as soon as possible (and the first one if you haven’t done so yet).
For those who are into Star Trek, Lower Decks continues to deliver some amazing material. I was a bit sceptical of the show (and rightly so, given the underwhelming Very Short Treks) but it somehow manages to be hilarious and ultra-dorky about the previous shows.
Opportunities
Professorships
The University of Groningen seeks an Assistant Professor: Equal Opportunities in the Energy Transition in a Digital World. They seek somebody with a PhD (or completing one) in EU technology law and related areas, with knowledge of EU energy law or the willingness to learn about that domain. Applications are accepted until 23 October 2023, with an envisaged start date of 1 January 2024.
VU Amsterdam has two open positions for Assistant Professors in Public Administration, with expertise in AI and Governance and/or computational social science (one is also available to people applying at an Associate Professor level). Applications are open until 12 November 2023, and you shouldn’t miss the opportunity to work with Professor Madalina Busuioc and other scholars in the department.
Elsewhere in the Netherlands, the University of Twente is looking for an Assistant Professor in Public Policy and Governance working on social transitions and digital transformations in various domains. Applications until 21 October 2023.
Meanwhile, in Australia, the ANU College of Law has multiple vacancies in a broad range of fields, including law and technology. Applications are open until 13 November 2023.
In the US, the Princeton School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS) is looking for an assistant, associate or full professor in the field of technology and its intersection with society. They invite applications by 1 December 2023 in any of the following priority areas: platforms and digital infrastructure; data science and society, and privacy and security.
Postdocs
The University of Amsterdam is hiring Postdoctoral Researchers on AI & Politics in the context of an interdisciplinary Research Priority Area on this topic. They seem to be looking for scholars interested in interdisciplinary, empirical work, with a deadline of 18 October 2023 for applications and an envisaged date of 1 January 2024 or in the spring of the same year.
In the UK, the Oxford Internet Institute is looking for a postdoctoral researcher to work on “bias, fairness, interpretability, and trustworthiness in medical AI applications involving large language models (LLM), deep learning, and other state-of-the-art machine learning methods”, apparently from a technical background. Applications are open until 8 November 2023.
In France, Inria Sophia Antipolis is looking for a postdoctoral researcher in Detecting Privacy Violations and/or Dark Patterns in Web/mobile/IoT applications. Applications are open until 12 November 2023 for candidates with a technical background, though “PhD in Data Protection or Consumer Protection law may also be eligible if the candidate is interested in transdisciplinary collaboration with Computer Scientists.”
Calls for papers
The Future of Privacy Forum invites submissions of finished papers for their Privacy Papers for Policymakers award. Submissions are expected until 20 October 2023, and they have a separate award for students that accepts submissions until 3 November 2023.
Joshua Neoh and Luca Siliquini-Cinelli have a call for abstracts for an edited volume on Epistemologies in Law: An Interdisciplinary Handbook. They will receive abstracts of up to 250 words until 15 January 2024, with the accepted chapters (up to 7,000 words) to be submitted by October 2024.
The European Journal of Legal Studies New Voices competition is open for the 2023/2024 academic year. Early career researchers (up to 5 years after PhD defence or before that) can submit contributions of 4,000 to 5,000 words by 1 December 2023. The best article will be included in a forthcoming edition of EJLS, and its author will receive a prize of EUR 500.
The Brazilian Data Protection Authority (ANPD) invites contributions to the envisaged regulatory sandbox for AI and data protection. Contribution are to be sent through the Participa + Brasil platform by 1 November 2023.
And now, the otters
I hope you enjoyed this issue! Please feel free to hit “Reply” if you’d like to discuss anything on it, and subscribe if you want to receive future updates by email:
Often the first one, for those of us who do most of their reading digitally. Though the visual impact of a cover when you are idly browsing a library (or publisher catalogue) can also be very striking.
At this point, it might seem tempting to speak of these things in terms of the “attention economy”. Personally, I never found the concept very useful, and the recent troubles with replication in psychology make even me more reluctant to rely on it. But go ahead if you want, I’m not a cop.
Thus potentially setting us up for disappointment.
But, fortunately, I’ve also written with more inspired colleagues.
Title length is an important factor, especially when you are using footnote-based citation styles and every word counts.