Patrick Brian Smith
@patrickbriansmith.bsky.social
Assistant Professor and University Fellow at the University of Salford
// media, forensics, human rights, law + doc/spatial/political theory // https://salford-repository.worktribe.com/person/2316413/patrick-brian-smith
// media, forensics, human rights, law + doc/spatial/political theory // https://salford-repository.worktribe.com/person/2316413/patrick-brian-smith
Pinned
Over the course of the summer, pieces from the forthcoming issue of World Records, titled "Just Evidence," co-edited by LaCharles Ward, Sasha Crawford-Holland, and myself, will be released. The full issue with introduction will be available late summer! worldrecordsjournal.org/category/vol...
New article co-authored with Patrick Brodie for this excellent issue of the Spanish language journal Ecología Política, focused on the theme of "militarisation." Our article is titled "Big Tech, AI, and the Political Ecology of Digital Militarisation"
www.ecologiapolitica.info/en-profundid...
www.ecologiapolitica.info/en-profundid...
Big tech, inteligencia artificial y ecología política de militarización digital - Ecología Política
Big tech, inteligencia artificial y ecología política de militarización digital | En Profundidad | 70 Militarización | Ecología Política
www.ecologiapolitica.info
December 23, 2025 at 6:25 PM
New article co-authored with Patrick Brodie for this excellent issue of the Spanish language journal Ecología Política, focused on the theme of "militarisation." Our article is titled "Big Tech, AI, and the Political Ecology of Digital Militarisation"
www.ecologiapolitica.info/en-profundid...
www.ecologiapolitica.info/en-profundid...
Pleased to share this recording of Matthew Ford's
@warmatters.bsky.social book talk on War in the Smartphone Age: Conflict, Connectivity and the Crises at Our Fingertips, with respondent Miglė Bareikytė www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRDs...
@warmatters.bsky.social book talk on War in the Smartphone Age: Conflict, Connectivity and the Crises at Our Fingertips, with respondent Miglė Bareikytė www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRDs...
War in the Smartphone Age, book talk and discussion with Matthew Ford
YouTube video by Patrick Smith
www.youtube.com
December 16, 2025 at 4:31 PM
Pleased to share this recording of Matthew Ford's
@warmatters.bsky.social book talk on War in the Smartphone Age: Conflict, Connectivity and the Crises at Our Fingertips, with respondent Miglė Bareikytė www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRDs...
@warmatters.bsky.social book talk on War in the Smartphone Age: Conflict, Connectivity and the Crises at Our Fingertips, with respondent Miglė Bareikytė www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRDs...
Reposted by Patrick Brian Smith
🔴 Nigel Farage’s Reform is more reliant on super-rich backers than any major party in modern British political history
75% of *all* Reform donations *ever* have come from just three rich men
Is this what democracy looks like?
New on Democracy for Sale
democracyforsale.substack.com/p/75-of-refo...
75% of *all* Reform donations *ever* have come from just three rich men
Is this what democracy looks like?
New on Democracy for Sale
democracyforsale.substack.com/p/75-of-refo...
75% of Reform UK’s donations have come from just three rich men
Calls grow for donation caps as Democracy for Sale research reveals that three-quarters of Reform’s funding comes from a trio of wealthy donors
democracyforsale.substack.com
December 5, 2025 at 10:55 AM
🔴 Nigel Farage’s Reform is more reliant on super-rich backers than any major party in modern British political history
75% of *all* Reform donations *ever* have come from just three rich men
Is this what democracy looks like?
New on Democracy for Sale
democracyforsale.substack.com/p/75-of-refo...
75% of *all* Reform donations *ever* have come from just three rich men
Is this what democracy looks like?
New on Democracy for Sale
democracyforsale.substack.com/p/75-of-refo...
Reposted by Patrick Brian Smith
Pleased to be talking with @patrickbriansmith.bsky.social and Miglė Bareikytė about my book at @salforduni.bsky.social' Emergent Nonfiction Lab on 3 December at 16:00 Stockholm time.
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/war-in-the...
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/war-in-the...
War in the Smartphone Age, book talk and discussion with Matthew Ford
Matthew Ford on his new book War in the Smartphone Age: Conflict, Connectivity and the Crises at Our Fingertips + respondent Miglė Bareikytė
www.eventbrite.co.uk
November 3, 2025 at 10:10 AM
Pleased to be talking with @patrickbriansmith.bsky.social and Miglė Bareikytė about my book at @salforduni.bsky.social' Emergent Nonfiction Lab on 3 December at 16:00 Stockholm time.
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/war-in-the...
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/war-in-the...
Upcoming event at the Emergent Nonfiction Lab, Nadia El-Shaarawi will present her recent book Collateral Damages: Tracing the Debts and Displacements of the Iraq War! You can register here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/collateral...
Collateral Damages, book talk and discussion with Nadia El-Shaarawi
Nadia El-Shaarawi on her recent book Collateral Damages: Tracing the Debts and Displacements of the Iraq War
www.eventbrite.co.uk
October 23, 2025 at 3:31 PM
Upcoming event at the Emergent Nonfiction Lab, Nadia El-Shaarawi will present her recent book Collateral Damages: Tracing the Debts and Displacements of the Iraq War! You can register here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/collateral...
Recording of recent talk with @byrontau.bsky.social on "Means of Control: How the Hidden Alliance of Tech and Government is Creating a New American Surveillance State" (2024). Discussion bridges investigative journalism, critical media studies, + surveillance studies! www.youtube.com/watch?v=iT3s...
Means of Control, Byron Tau book talk and discussion
YouTube video by Patrick Smith
www.youtube.com
October 16, 2025 at 1:51 PM
Recording of recent talk with @byrontau.bsky.social on "Means of Control: How the Hidden Alliance of Tech and Government is Creating a New American Surveillance State" (2024). Discussion bridges investigative journalism, critical media studies, + surveillance studies! www.youtube.com/watch?v=iT3s...
Just a reminder that this event with @byrontau.bsky.social is coming up soon: Wednesday, October 15 at 3pm GMT
Pleased to announce this talk with @byrontau.bsky.social on his recent book "Means of Control: How the Hidden Alliance of Tech and Government is Creating a New American Surveillance State." You can register here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/means-of-c...
Means of Control, book talk and discussion with Byron Tau
Byron Tau on his recent book Means of Control: How the Hidden Alliance of Tech and Government is Creating a New American Surveillance State
www.eventbrite.co.uk
October 6, 2025 at 6:16 PM
Just a reminder that this event with @byrontau.bsky.social is coming up soon: Wednesday, October 15 at 3pm GMT
Pleased to announce this talk with @byrontau.bsky.social on his recent book "Means of Control: How the Hidden Alliance of Tech and Government is Creating a New American Surveillance State." You can register here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/means-of-c...
Means of Control, book talk and discussion with Byron Tau
Byron Tau on his recent book Means of Control: How the Hidden Alliance of Tech and Government is Creating a New American Surveillance State
www.eventbrite.co.uk
September 23, 2025 at 3:52 PM
Pleased to announce this talk with @byrontau.bsky.social on his recent book "Means of Control: How the Hidden Alliance of Tech and Government is Creating a New American Surveillance State." You can register here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/means-of-c...
Reposted by Patrick Brian Smith
"Just Evidence," the World Records volume that I edited with @patrickbriansmith.bsky.social and LaCharles Ward @blurrdblue.bsky.social, launches today! It asks: What does accountability look (and sound and feel) like? Read the intro here:
worldrecordsjournal.org/just-evidence/
worldrecordsjournal.org/just-evidence/
Just Evidence - World Records
worldrecordsjournal.org
September 18, 2025 at 8:05 PM
"Just Evidence," the World Records volume that I edited with @patrickbriansmith.bsky.social and LaCharles Ward @blurrdblue.bsky.social, launches today! It asks: What does accountability look (and sound and feel) like? Read the intro here:
worldrecordsjournal.org/just-evidence/
worldrecordsjournal.org/just-evidence/
Pleased to share the introduction from this special issue! More articles to follow in the coming weeks! worldrecordsjournal.org/just-evidence/
September 18, 2025 at 5:22 PM
Pleased to share the introduction from this special issue! More articles to follow in the coming weeks! worldrecordsjournal.org/just-evidence/
"The US was born in war and has waged a war of some sort in every year of its existence. Silicon Valley knows that war is good for business. And many of its most powerful
people want us to stop worrying about frivolities like ethics or ecology and love the bomb" www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
people want us to stop worrying about frivolities like ethics or ecology and love the bomb" www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Laleh Khalili · Collective Property, Private Control: Defence Tech
The United States was born in war and has waged a war of some sort in every year of its existence. Silicon Valley knows...
www.lrb.co.uk
August 1, 2025 at 6:08 PM
"The US was born in war and has waged a war of some sort in every year of its existence. Silicon Valley knows that war is good for business. And many of its most powerful
people want us to stop worrying about frivolities like ethics or ecology and love the bomb" www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
people want us to stop worrying about frivolities like ethics or ecology and love the bomb" www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Reposted by Patrick Brian Smith
Sasha Crawford-Holland, @patrickbriansmith.bsky.social, and Andrew Williams look at open-source investigation and propose tactics to counter epistemic injustice aimed at fostering pluralistic, decentralised, and solidarity-based OSI practices.
academic.oup.com/lril/article...
academic.oup.com/lril/article...
Law’s capture of human rights focused open-source investigation
Abstract. With new protocols emerging to regulate the field of open-source investigation, this article critiques their widespread deference to the requirem
academic.oup.com
June 24, 2025 at 10:14 AM
Sasha Crawford-Holland, @patrickbriansmith.bsky.social, and Andrew Williams look at open-source investigation and propose tactics to counter epistemic injustice aimed at fostering pluralistic, decentralised, and solidarity-based OSI practices.
academic.oup.com/lril/article...
academic.oup.com/lril/article...
Reposted by Patrick Brian Smith
Our new issue of the London Review of International Law is out with articles by Tanja Aalberts, @ingovenzke.bsky.social, Gavin Sullivan, Wouter Werner, Sasha Crawford-Holland, @patrickbriansmith.bsky.social, Andrew Williams, and the Medellín Group.
academic.oup.com/lril/issue/1...
academic.oup.com/lril/issue/1...
Volume 13 Issue 1 | London Review of International Law | Oxford Academic
Publishes high-quality scholarship on international law from around the world. While no area of international legal interest is excluded, the journal prioritises non-doctrinal scholarship, including t...
academic.oup.com
June 24, 2025 at 10:14 AM
Our new issue of the London Review of International Law is out with articles by Tanja Aalberts, @ingovenzke.bsky.social, Gavin Sullivan, Wouter Werner, Sasha Crawford-Holland, @patrickbriansmith.bsky.social, Andrew Williams, and the Medellín Group.
academic.oup.com/lril/issue/1...
academic.oup.com/lril/issue/1...
New article that critiques dominant narratives in “media forensics," arguing for a decolonial reorientation grounded in Indigenous epistemologies. Examining the work of NRO, it calls for counter-hegemonic practices that challenge settler-colonial evidentiary regimes... csalateral.org/issue/14-1/f...
Patrick Brian Smith, "Futurist Forensics: Indigenous Evidence, Cosmo-Epistemologies, and the New Red Order" - Lateral
This article critically engages with the emerging “media forensic” turn at the intersection of visual culture, new media practice, and humanitarian and political activism. This field purports to subve...
csalateral.org
June 2, 2025 at 1:41 PM
New article that critiques dominant narratives in “media forensics," arguing for a decolonial reorientation grounded in Indigenous epistemologies. Examining the work of NRO, it calls for counter-hegemonic practices that challenge settler-colonial evidentiary regimes... csalateral.org/issue/14-1/f...
Reposted by Patrick Brian Smith
'Human rights OSI frequently privileges technoscientific and criminological modes of investigation over alternative methods of identifying or tracking violence and harm.'
Interesting new piece challenging some of the assumptions on OSI contributions to atrocity accountability, particularly relating to the privileging of legal deference: there is a growing risk of excluding accounts of suffering in order to appease legal practices and norms - tinyurl.com/yc4v6y9z
Law’s capture of human rights focused open-source investigation
Abstract. With new protocols emerging to regulate the field of open-source investigation, this article critiques their widespread deference to the requirem
tinyurl.com
May 14, 2025 at 11:32 AM
'Human rights OSI frequently privileges technoscientific and criminological modes of investigation over alternative methods of identifying or tracking violence and harm.'
Reposted by Patrick Brian Smith
Interesting new piece challenging some of the assumptions on OSI contributions to atrocity accountability, particularly relating to the privileging of legal deference: there is a growing risk of excluding accounts of suffering in order to appease legal practices and norms - tinyurl.com/yc4v6y9z
Law’s capture of human rights focused open-source investigation
Abstract. With new protocols emerging to regulate the field of open-source investigation, this article critiques their widespread deference to the requirem
tinyurl.com
May 14, 2025 at 11:28 AM
Interesting new piece challenging some of the assumptions on OSI contributions to atrocity accountability, particularly relating to the privileging of legal deference: there is a growing risk of excluding accounts of suffering in order to appease legal practices and norms - tinyurl.com/yc4v6y9z
Reposted by Patrick Brian Smith
"We were excited to have a panel accepted on the role of technology in genocide in Gaza at this year’s Computers, Privacy & Data Protection (CPDP) conference in Brussels. However, CPDP then requested that Access Now & others remove the word “genocide” from panel titles & descriptions. We declined."
May 23, 2025 at 8:12 AM
"We were excited to have a panel accepted on the role of technology in genocide in Gaza at this year’s Computers, Privacy & Data Protection (CPDP) conference in Brussels. However, CPDP then requested that Access Now & others remove the word “genocide” from panel titles & descriptions. We declined."
This event is coming up next week! With Mark Griffiths (@casesofyou.bsky.social) and Kali Rubaii. You can register here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/late-moder...
May 21, 2025 at 12:19 AM
This event is coming up next week! With Mark Griffiths (@casesofyou.bsky.social) and Kali Rubaii. You can register here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/late-moder...
A new co-authored piece that critically examines open-source investigation’s increasing reliance on—and deference to—the law. Written with Sasha Crawford-Holland and Andrew Williams. doi.org/10.1093/lril...
Law’s capture of human rights focused open-source investigation
Abstract. With new protocols emerging to regulate the field of open-source investigation, this article critiques their widespread deference to the requirem
doi.org
May 8, 2025 at 5:04 PM
A new co-authored piece that critically examines open-source investigation’s increasing reliance on—and deference to—the law. Written with Sasha Crawford-Holland and Andrew Williams. doi.org/10.1093/lril...
Reposted by Patrick Brian Smith
Those exploring the environmental consequences of conflicts throughout their lifecycle may well be interested in this event on 29 May.
Pleased to share details for this forthcoming event at the Emergent Nonfiction Lab. You can register here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/late-moder...
May 8, 2025 at 10:00 AM
Those exploring the environmental consequences of conflicts throughout their lifecycle may well be interested in this event on 29 May.
Pleased to share details for this forthcoming event at the Emergent Nonfiction Lab. You can register here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/late-moder...
May 6, 2025 at 2:22 PM
Pleased to share details for this forthcoming event at the Emergent Nonfiction Lab. You can register here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/late-moder...
Over the course of the summer, pieces from the forthcoming issue of World Records, titled "Just Evidence," co-edited by LaCharles Ward, Sasha Crawford-Holland, and myself, will be released. The full issue with introduction will be available late summer! worldrecordsjournal.org/category/vol...
May 5, 2025 at 8:27 PM
Over the course of the summer, pieces from the forthcoming issue of World Records, titled "Just Evidence," co-edited by LaCharles Ward, Sasha Crawford-Holland, and myself, will be released. The full issue with introduction will be available late summer! worldrecordsjournal.org/category/vol...
Third piece from World Records Vol 9! Yasmina Price examines how Afro-diasporic artists use counterforensics—embodied, multisensory practices—to challenge colonial archives and reclaim black memory beyond the limits of evidence, law, and visual authority worldrecordsjournal.org/tongueless-w...
Tongueless Whispers and Recited Choreographies - World Records
On black memory as counterforensics.
worldrecordsjournal.org
May 5, 2025 at 8:20 PM
Third piece from World Records Vol 9! Yasmina Price examines how Afro-diasporic artists use counterforensics—embodied, multisensory practices—to challenge colonial archives and reclaim black memory beyond the limits of evidence, law, and visual authority worldrecordsjournal.org/tongueless-w...
Second preview piece from the forthcoming issue of World Records, co-edited by LaCharles Ward, Sasha Crawford-Holland, and myself. Brett Story asks "Can injustice be answered by catharsis? In other words, is catharsis.. itself just, and thus a right?" worldrecordsjournal.org/no-justice-n...
No Justice, No Relief - World Records
Brett Story on the demand for catharsis in our courts and on our screens.
worldrecordsjournal.org
May 5, 2025 at 7:48 PM
Second preview piece from the forthcoming issue of World Records, co-edited by LaCharles Ward, Sasha Crawford-Holland, and myself. Brett Story asks "Can injustice be answered by catharsis? In other words, is catharsis.. itself just, and thus a right?" worldrecordsjournal.org/no-justice-n...
Reposted by Patrick Brian Smith
Had a great time presenting this paper, cowritten with Sireesh Gururaja and Lucy Suchman!
Paper draft here: arxiv.org/abs/2411.17840
Paper draft here: arxiv.org/abs/2411.17840
A recording of @davidthewid.bsky.social and @siree.sh's recent talk at the Emergent Nonfiction Lab. "Basic Research, Lethal Effects: Military AI Research Funding as Enlistment," co-authored with Lucy Suchman www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnJy...
Basic Research, Lethal Effects, David Widder and Sireesh Gururaja article talk and discussion
YouTube video by Patrick Smith
www.youtube.com
May 1, 2025 at 7:45 PM
Had a great time presenting this paper, cowritten with Sireesh Gururaja and Lucy Suchman!
Paper draft here: arxiv.org/abs/2411.17840
Paper draft here: arxiv.org/abs/2411.17840