Dr Keith Scott

Job: Senior Lecturer in English Language/Chair, Faculty Research Ethics Committee

Faculty: Arts, Design and Humanities

School/department: School of Humanities and Performing Arts

Address: De Montfort University, The Gateway, Leicester, LE1 9BH

T: 0116 255 6188

E: jklscott@dmu.ac.uk

W: https://www.dmu.ac.uk

 

Personal profile

Dr Keith Scott is a Senior Lecturer in English Language at De Montfort University, where he teaches English Language at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. He is Chair of the Faculty Research Ethics Committee For Arts, Design, and Humanities. He is a member of the University's Cyber Security Centre, and his research interests lie in the following areas:

Corpus Linguistics
Influence and Persuasion, above all in an online setting
Information Warfare/Information Operations
Cyber Warfare
The history and sociocultural nature of 'Cyber'

He would welcome applications for PhD study in any of these areas.

He is also Admissions Tutor for the English Language Programme, and is happy to discuss the course with prospective students. He offers a range of subject-related talks and workshops for schools and colleges. please contact him for details if you would like to arrange an event, either on- or off-campus.

Research group affiliations

DMU Cyber Security Centre

Media, Culture and Technology

Associate Member, Institute of Digital Research Communications and Responsible Innovation

Publications and outputs

SELECTED RECENT PUBLICATIONS

2024     ‘It Takes a (Global) Village’: Towards a Multi-Actor Networked Conception of Security’: in ECCWS2024 : Proceedings of the 23rd European Conference on Cyber Warfare and Security.

2022      'New Scripts for the Theatre of War': to appear in Military Cybernetics : A new paradigm for conflict in the interconnected world, a co-edited collection of essays produced by the Prometheus research Group, to be published by the Ministry of Defence Defence Development, Concepts and Doctrine Centre. [Forthcoming]

It’s not Lupus’: Putting the ‘Cyber’ back in Cyber Security’ : to appear in Journal of Surveillance, Security and Safety (speciai Issue, ‘Cyber Threat Intelligence – Multi- and Trans-Disciplinary State of the Art’

‘Out Beyond Jointery’: Developing a Model for Gaming Multi-Domain Warfare’  Proceedings of ICCWS2022 : 17th International Conference on Cyber Warfare and Security.

‘Reith, Russell, and the Robots: AI, Warfare, and Shaping the Debate’ –  Proceedings of ECCWS2022 : 21st European Conference on Cyber Warfare and Security,

2021      ‘Ha Ha Only Serious: Irony in Information Warfare and Comedy-Cloaked Extremism’– in ICCWS 2021:  Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Cyber Warfare and Security.

 ‘Connected, Continual Conflict: Towards a Cybernetic Model of Warfare’ : ECCWS2021 : Proceedings of the 20th European Conference on Cyber Warfare and Security.

 Gaming, Learning, Transforming : Research output from DMU Centre for Academic Innovation Sabbatical.

 2020      ‘Interdisciplinary Lessons Learned While Researching Fake News’: Frontiers in Psychology, 16 December 2020. Co-authored paper.

 2019      'Nothing Up My Sleeve': Information Warfare and the Magical Mindset" In Emerging Cyber Threats and Cognitive Vulnerabilities, ed Benson and McAlaney, Elsevier.                           

‘Strategic Foresight and Resilience through Cyber-Wargaming’. – in Proceedings of the 18th European Conference on Cyber Warfare and Security ECCWS 2019. Co-authored paper.       

‘A Cross-Discipline Approach to Countering 4th Generation Espionage– in Proceedings of the 18th European Conference on Cyber Warfare and Security ECCWS 2019. Co-authored paper.

 ‘Racist Soapdishes and Rebellious (?) Children: Towards Human/AI Cooperation’ – in Proceedings of ECIAIR 2019 : European Conference on the Impact of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics.

  ‘A General Theory of Influence in a DIME/PMESII/ASCOP/IRC2 Model of Information Warfare’, Journal of Information Warfare, Volume 19, Issue 2.   Co-authored article.

  ‘The Persuasion Game: Serious Gaming Information Warfare and Influence’. Journal of Information Warfare, Volume 19, Issue 2.   Co-authored article.

 ‘Like 9/11 on steroids’: AI in the age of Coronavirus’ –in Proceedings of ECIAIR 2019 : 2nd European Conference on the Impact of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics.

 2018      IW™?:  'Building Global Community', Facebook, and Cyber Security in the post-Westphalian Age: Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Cyber Warfare and Security ICCWS 2018, National Defense University, Washington DC, March.

 'A Second Amendment for Cyber? - Possession, Prohibition and Personal Liberty        for the Information Age': Proceedings of the 17th European Conference on Cyber Warfare and Security ECCWS 2018.

 2017      'Phobic Cartography: a Human-Centred, Communicative Analysis of the Cyber Threat Landscape' Journal of Information Warfare, 16:4.

 2016      "Dark Gnostics: Secrets, Mysteries, and OCCINT", in Skepsi, vol. 7: The Secret in Contemporary Theory, Society, and Culture.

 "Dissuasion, Disinformation, Dissonance:  Complexity and Autocritique as tools of information warfare”. Journal of Information Warfare, 14: 4.

 "We’re Doomed! – And Your Problem Is? How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love Cyber Insecurity.": in Cyber Security is a Socio-Technical Challenge: New Concepts and Practical Measures to Enhance Detection, Prevention and Response (Ed Mils Hills) Nova Science Publishers.

Key research outputs

2018: Potentium Project, ADF/UNSW, Canberra. The first iteration of an ongoing research group, examining online influence and its modelling within simulation and 'serious gaming'

PROMETHEUS Research Group: see below

Research interests/expertise

Corpus Linguistics
Influence and Persuasion, above all in an online setting
Information Warfare/Information Operations
Cyber Warfare
The history and sociocultural nature of 'Cyber'

Areas of teaching

Undergraduate and Postgraduate English Language and Linguistics (Pure and Applied)

Qualifications

BA English Literature and French, University of Oxford

PhD in French, University of Wales College of Cardiff

Diploma in Publc Service Interpreting (Institute of Linguists)

Courses taught

ELAN1003 Topics in Linguistics:Theory in Practice

ELAN2001 Sociolinguistics

ELAN3000 English Language Dissertation

ELAN3001 English Language in the Workplace

ELAN3013 Powerful Language : Rhetoric

ELAN3023 Perception, Persuasion, Power

Honours and awards

Vice-Chancellor's Distinguished Teaching Award 2010, 2012, 2017

Centre for Academic Innovation Sabbatical: 2021

Education Leadership Programme: 2020-2021

Membership of external committees

Organising Committee, European Conference on Cyber Warfare and Security 2024

Organising Committee, European Conference on Cyber Warfare and Security 2018

All-Party Parliamentary Group on Cyber Security

Membership of professional associations and societies

Royal United Services Institute

Cybernetics Society

Senior Fellow, Higher Education Agency

Projects

PROMETHEUS Research Group: an interdisciplinary research project, composed of members of the defence sector, business, academia and government, constituted to examine the social, political and military implications of ‘cyber’ and AI in their widest senses. The group is contributing to the development of UK military doctrine, and meeting regularly to present research papers and discussion seminars/workshops. The group is supported by funding from the UK Ministry of Defence Development, Concepts and Doctrine Centre.

Conference attendance

 

2022 

‘Out Beyond Jointery’: Developing a Model for Gaming Multi-Domain Warfare’  ICCWS2022 : 17th International Conference on Cyber Warfare and Security, 17-18 March 2022, State University of New York, Albany, NY.

‘Reith, Russell, and the Robots: AI, Warfare, and Shaping the Debate’ ECCWS2022 : 21st European Conference on Cyber Warfare and Security, 16-17 June 2022. University of Chester.

‘Modelling Multi-Domain Conflict – Conceptualizing ‘War 2.0’’ : to be presented at 16th NATO Operations Research and Analysis Conference, Copenhagen, 17-19 October.

2021                           

‘Connected, Continual Conflict: Towards a Cybernetic Model of Warfare’ : ECCWS2021 : 20th European Conference on Cyber Warfare and Security, 24th - 25th June 2021, University of Chester.

 ‘Ha Ha Only Serious: Irony in Information Warfare and Comedy-Cloaked Extremism’ : ICCWS2021 : 16th International Conference on Cyber Warfare and Security, 25 February- 26 February 2021, Tennessee, U.S.A.

2020                            

‘Like 9/11 on steroids’: AI in the age of Coronavirus’ - ECIAIR 2020 : 2nd European Conference on the Impact of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), Portugal.

‘MInds, the Martial, and Metamodernity : Preparing for Next-Generation Conflict’ : paper Prometheus 1.0, Ministry of Defence, Development, Concepts and Doctrine Centre, Shrivenham, 6/2/2020.

 2019                            

 ‘Racist Soapdishes and Rebellious (?) Children: Towards Human/AI Cooperation’

– ECIAIR 2019 : European Conference on the Impact of Artificial Intelligence and

Robotics, EM-Normandie Business School, Oxford.

 

‘The Persuasion Game: Developing a Serious Game Based Model for Information Warfare and Influence Studies’ – ECCWS2019 (European Conference on Cyber Warfare and Security, University of Coimbra, Portugal, July 2-4. Paper co-authored with Dr David Ormrod, Mr Lynn Scheinman, LTC Thorsten Kodalle, Dr Char Sample, Dr Benjamin Turnbull.

 

‘Strategic Foresight and Resilience through Cyber-Wargaming’. – ECCWS2019 (European Conference on Cyber Warfare and Security, University of Coimbra, Portugal, July 2-4. Paper co-authored with Dr David Ormrod.

                                               

‘Thoughts about a General Theory of Influence in a DIME/PMESII/ASCOP/IRC2 Model‘. – ECCWS2019 (European Conference on Cyber Warfare and Security, University of Coimbra, Portugal, July 2-4. Paper co-authored with OLT Thorsten Kodalle, Dr. Char Sample, and Dr. David Ormrod.

 

‘4th Generation Espionage, Why Technology (even intelligent technology) is Insufficient’ - ECCWS2019 (European Conference on Cyber Warfare and Security, University of Coimbra, Portugal, July 2-4. Paper co-authored with Dr. Char Sample and Dr. Emily Darraj.

 

2018    

 

IW™?:  'Building Global Community', Facebook, and Cyber Security in the post-Westphalian Age: ICCWS2018 (International Conference on Cyber Warfare and  Security), National Defense University, Washington DC, March.

 

'Conceptual Breakdown and Epistemological Apocalypse: The Anti-liminal  Histories of China Miéville.': After Fantastika, University of Lancaster, 6-7 July

 

'A Second Amendment for Cyber? - Possession, Prohibition and Personal Liberty  for the Information Age': ECCWS2018 (European Conference on Cyber Warfare and Security), University of Oslo, June 28-29.

 

2017

 

'"We'll Always Have Paris": Adaptation as Transformation in the works of Kim                  Newman'. Association of Adaptation Studies Conference, De Montfort University,

Leicester 18-19 September.

 

'Phobic Cartography: a Human-Centred, Communicative Analysis of the Cyber Threat Landscape': ECCWS2017 (European Conference on Cyber Warfare and            Security), UCD, Dublin, 28-30 June 2017.

 

Session Chair, 'Cyber Warfare' session, ECCWS2017 (European Conference on Cyber Warfare and Security), UCD, Dublin, 28-30 June.

 

2016          

 

"Meat The Machine: We Cyborg!"- Seminar/discussion, presented at De Montfort University Local Research/Being Human Festival, November 18th.

                                   

2015        

 

'Robot Apocalypse: Now... Or Never?' - Debate (Participants: KS, Colin Williams (Warwick/SBL), Prof Kevin Warwick (Coventry), Dr Kathleen Williams (DMU), Warwick Festival of Ideas, University of Warwick, October 16.

 

‘Anxieties and Anarchitecture: Mythopoesis for the Information Age -  inaugural Prometheus Project Seminar series, University of Warwick, September.

 

'English Apocalypses and Robot Skateboards: Warren Ellis’ Futures' - presented at 'The Future in Comics', Stockholm University, 3-5 September 2015.

 

'From R'lyeh to Whitehall: Charles Stross and the Bureaucratic Fantastic' - presented at 'Locating Fantastika', Lancaster University, 8 July.

 

'Dissuasion, Disinformation, Dissonance:  Complexity and Autocritique as tools of information warfare' - presented at ECCWS2015, 14th European Conference on Cyber Warfare and Security ECCWS-2015, The University of Hertfordshire, 2-3 July.

 

'Whatever happened to Tomorrow? – The Fearful, Fantastic Futures of Science Fiction' - presented at Cheltenham science festival, 6 June 2015.

 

'Words For A Wired World: Cybersecurity As Communicative Art' - presented at  1st International Conference on Cyber Security for Sustainable Society 2015, University of Coventry, 26-27th February

 

2014        

 

‘Dark Gnostics: Secrets, Mysteries, and OCCINT" - presented at 'The Secret in Contemporary Theory, Society, and Culture, University of Kent at Canterbury, 30-    

31 May, 2014.

 

"Information, Influence and Narrative: from miles gloriosus to Homo narrans"; presented at DSTL/MOD conference, “Social Influence in the Information Age”, Kings College, London, 28/2/14.

                                   

2013

 

"Apocalypse Not: Where next for the Morrison Multiverse?" - presented at 'Grant Morrison: Which Side Are You On?', University of Stockholm, December 18-20, 2013.

 

"Omnia Mutantur, Nihil Interit: Mythopoesis and Modernity in Neil Gaiman’s Sandman" - presented at 'Translating Myth', University of Essex, 5-7 September, 2013.

 

"Pan narrans and the War on Terror: toward the weaponizing of narrative" - presented at International Conference on Narrative, Manchester Metropolitan University, June 25-27, 2013.

 

2012         

 

"Mythology, modernity and the  memeplex: from PSYOPS to Superheroes." Presented at AMALTEA Conference, 'Myth and Interdisciplinarity', Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 29-30 October, 2012

‘’’Let me Slip into Someone more Comfortable”: Fiction Suits, Semantic Shamanism and Meta-linguistic Magic’ - presented at 'Grant Morrison and the Superhero Renaissance', Trinity College Dublin, 14th-15th September, 2012.

 

2011         

 

‘“Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn”: H. P. Lovecraft and the inexpressible horror of the physical’ - presented at 'The Monster Inside Us, The Monsters Around Us: Monstrosity and Humanity', De Montfort University, 18-20 November, 2011.

 

 "Lost Boys, Lost Girls, Lost Innocence: JM Barrie and Alan Moore": presented at "Cien años de Peter y Wendy", Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 15 March 2011.

 

"Rapture Rewrites Rand: the interactive ideological autocritique of Bioshock" - presented at 'Adaptation and the New Technologies', DMU, 25 January 2011

 

2010           

 

 "Blood, Bodies, Books: Kim Newman and the Vampire as Cultural Text": Paper presented at 'Vegetarians, VILFs and Fang-Bangers: Modern Vampire Romance in print and on screen', DMU, 24 November 2010.

 

2009           

 

"Up yours, Ludwig: Sarah Silverman, Saying the Unsayable, and the Meta-Bigot       Mode": Paper presented at 'Playing for Laughs', DMU, 7 February 2009.

Key articles information

 

[Selected recent publications]

 

2021

Gaming, Learning, Transforming : Research paper produced as one of outcomes of DMU Centre for Academic Innovation Sabbatical.

‘Ha Ha Only Serious: Irony in Information Warfare and Comedy-Cloaked Extremism’ : ICCWS 2021:  Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Cyber Warfare and Security.

 ‘Connected, Continual Conflict: Towards a Cybernetic Model of Warfare’: ECCWS2021 : Proceedings of the 20th European Conference on Cyber Warfare and Security.

2020      

‘A General Theory of Influence in a DIME/PMESII/ASCOP/IRC2 Model of Information Warfare’, Journal of Information Warfare, Volume 19, Issue 2.   Co-authored with OLT Thorsten Kodalle, Dr. Char Sample, and Dr. David Ormrod.

 ‘The Persuasion Game: Serious Gaming Information Warfare and Influence’. Journal of Information Warfare, Volume 19, Issue 2.   Co-authored with Dr D. Ormrod, OLT Thorsten Kodalle, Dr. Char Sample, L. Scheinman, and A.Ormrod.

  ‘Like 9/11 on steroids’: AI in the age of Coronavirus’ : Proceedings of ECIAIR 2019 : 2nd European Conference on the Impact of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics.

 ‘Interdisciplinary Lessons Learned While Researching Fake News’ : Frontiers in Psychology, 16 December 2020. Co-authored with Dr. Char Sample, Dr. Michael J. Jensen, Prof. John McAlaney, Steve Fitchpatrick, Amanda Brockinton, Dr. David Ormrod and Amy Ormrod.

 2019

 'Nothing Up My Sleeve': Information Warfare and the Magical Mindset" In Emerging Cyber Threats and Cognitive Vulnerabilities, ed Benson and McAlaney, Elsevier.                                           

‘The Persuasion Game: Developing a Serious Game Based Model for Information Warfare and Influence Studies’ : Proceedings of the 18th European Conference on Cyber Warfare and Security ECCWS 2018. Paper co-authored with Dr David Ormrod, Mr Lynn Scheinman, LTC Thorsten Kodalle, Dr Char Sample, Dr Benjamin Turnbull.

‘Strategic Foresight and Resilience through Cyber-Wargaming’ : Proceedings of the 18th European Conference on Cyber Warfare and Security ECCWS 2018. Paper co-authored with Dr David Ormrod.                                           

‘Thoughts about a General Theory of Influence in a DIME/PMESII/ASCOP/IRC2 Model‘ : Proceedings of the 18th European Conference on Cyber Warfare and Security ECCWS 2018. Paper co-authored with OLT Thorsten Kodalle, Dr. Char Sample, and Dr. David Ormrod.

‘4th Generation Espionage, Why Technology (even intelligent technology) is Insufficient’ : Proceedings of the 18th European Conference on Cyber Warfare and Security ECCWS 2018. Paper co-authored with Dr. Char Sample and Dr. Emily Darraj.

‘Racist Soapdishes and Rebellious (?) Children: Towards Human/AI Cooperation’ : Proceedings of ECIAIR 2019 : European Conference on the Impact of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics.

2018          

IW™?:  'Building Global Community', Facebook, and Cyber Security in the post-Westphalian Age: Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Cyber Warfare and Security ICCWS 2018.                                    

'A Second Amendment for Cyber? - Possession, Prohibition and Personal Liberty for the Information Age': Proceedings of the 17th European Conference on Cyber Warfare and Security ECCWS 2018.

 

 

Current research students

 

 


Externally funded research grants information

 

2021      8-11 February: Defence Development, Concepts and Doctrine Centre Workshop, ‘The Multi-Domain Integration (MDI) Force Exploration (FE) Event 2’

 21-22 September : Defence Development, Concepts and Doctrine Centre Workshop, 'War Fighting at Reach' : Multi-Domain Integration (MDI) Force Exploration (FE) Event 3’

12 October: AI and Ethics conference, MOD Defence Development, Concepts and Doctrine Centre, Beckett House, Shrivenham. As part of my work with the PROMETHEUS Research Group (qv), I will be involved in three events during this MOD-funded conference :

 (a) Chairing a debate on AI and Ethics with participants from the Army Chaplaincy and the UK Armed Services.

(b) Participating in a seminar introducing the key issues dealt with in our forthcoming volume on Cybernetics and the Military.

(c) participating in a series of interlinked presentations and debate, designed as a knowledge share event between academia, the military, and the UK Civil Service. [Forthcoming]

 2020      17 September: Direction of a day-long research seminar/workshop on Norbert Wiener and Cybernetics, MOD Defence Development, Concepts and Doctrine Centre, Shrivenham

 28 September – 2 October: Defence Development, Concepts and Doctrine Centre Workshop, ‘FORCE EXPLORATION FOR MULTI-DOMAIN INTEGRATION’ ; this activity feeding directly into the UK Military MDI Concept Implementation Plan (CIP).

 2019      17- 20 June: NATO GIDS Workshop ‘Multi-Domain Future Cyber Wargaming’. Command and Staff College of the German Armed Forces, Hamburg.

 2018      6 – 20 October: POTENTIUM Project :  Australian Defence Force Academy, Canberra. An interdisciplinary, multinational research team, designing/deploying a multimedia simulation for modelling influence in a dynamic transnational environment. Funded by the Directorate of Joint Influence Activities of the Australian Defence Force.

 2015      "Automating cyber defence responses”(in collaboration with ThinkingSafe, Cyber Security Centre, University of Warwick). MOD/DSTL-funded project, January-June 2015.

  "Secure Working in the Supply Chain (SeReWisc) - in collaboration with ThinkingSafe, Cyber Security Centre, University of Warwick, Royal Holloway. Funded by UK Technology Strategy Board, April 2015-July 2016.

 

Internally funded research project information

 

2020-2021: DMU Centre for Academic Innovation Sabbatical.