Travel and Learning Award for Amanda Turnbull
Supporting Amanda Turnbull to travel to Austria, Germany, and Switzerland to explore Artificial Intelligence (AI) governance and safeguarding a trajectory tailored for Aotearoa New Zealand’s dynamic society.
Borrin Foundation Travel and Learning Award
Amanda’s plan
The backdrop for this Borrin Travel and Learning Award is the world’s first-ever comprehensive legal framework on Artificial Intelligence (AI), the European Union’s AI Act. The AI Act holds much promise as a global waymark for comprehensively regulating fast-growing and next-generation technology, which may be misused, potentially resulting in widespread, harmful bias and sweeping cyberattacks. Amanda will use this award to leverage, in situ, the momentum gained at the dawn of this unique juncture in law-making in order to safeguard a trajectory tailored for Aotearoa New Zealand’s dynamic society. Specifically, she will expand her research on algorithmic decision-making in the lifecycle of contracts with the European Law Institute, share knowledge on legal risks and new technologies at the International Technology Law Association 2024 Europe Conference in Munich, Germany, and spend one-week as a visiting fellow at the Tech Hub of the Graduate Institute in Geneva, Switzerland.
About Amanda
Amanda Turnbull is a Lecturer in Law at Te Piringa Faculty of Law, School of Law, Politics, and Philosophy, University of Waikato (Tauranga). She is an interdisciplinary scholar committed to fostering dynamic thinking in our increasingly complex and globalized world where legal problems are becoming much more than problems about law. Amanda recently completed her PhD in Law at Osgoode Hall Law School (Toronto), which investigates how law, language, and authority function in the “Algorithmic Turn” in society, wherein algorithms are becoming the main mediator through which power is carried out. She also holds an MA (Carleton University), a BA (University of Ottawa), an ARCT (Royal Conservatory, Toronto, flute performance), and an Applied Arts Diploma (Honours Music, Mohawk College). She is a former Schulich Fellow in Law, Dalhousie University (Halifax) and also a former Assistant Dean/Doyenne adjointe of the Juris Doctor Program (University of Ottawa).
Amanda is committed to serving as a catalyst for change in the Bay of Plenty region, helping students to better understand their legal rights, responsibilities, and recourses, particularly in the context of cyber law. Her teaching portfolio includes cyber law, cybersecurity, digital lawyering, contract law, transnational law, and the philosophy of law.
Grant Amount
$9,932 in 2024 to support travel
“The Borrin Travel and Learning Award is a facilitator that will contribute to buttressing emerging cyber law research in the Bay of Plenty area and to future-proofing Aotearoa New Zealand in the age of generative AI.”