Top honour for surveillance studies co-founder
Professor Kirstie Ball received outstanding recognition from the Surveillance Studies Network.
Professor Kirstie Ball, Professor of Management at the University of St Andrews Business School, has received the Outstanding Achievement Award from the Surveillance Studies Network (SSN).
The SSN Directors, Network and Editorial Board presented the award at SSN 2026 in Lille last week, where Professor Ball delivered remarks during the Awards Prize plenary session. Previous recipients include leading surveillance scholars who have shaped the field over the past two decades.
Professor Ball co-founded SSN 20 years ago. It has grown into the main academic network for scholars of surveillance across disciplines, with regional networks now operating in Latin America, Australia and Oceania, and the Majority World. She also co-founded the SSN journal, Surveillance and Society, one of the first online academic journals, which remains independent and freely accessible worldwide.
Professor Ball said:
“It is a huge honour to receive this award alongside the scholars who have shaped surveillance studies over the past two decades. Building SSN and Surveillance and Society has been the work of many hands, and I am grateful to everyone who has helped make this field what it is today.”
The SSN Network and Editorial Board recognised Professor Ball’s exceptional and sustained contributions to the field, citing her intellectual leadership, institution building, and long-term service. Her research spans employee monitoring, the surveillance-industrial complex, and big data consumer surveillance, with funding from bodies including the ESRC, EPSRC, the Leverhulme Trust, and the British Academy.