Filip Biały

Filip Biały, an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Political and Administrative Sciences of Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz (Poland), is a political scientist with broad interest in contemporary normative political theory. His aim is to challenge methodological boundaries between humanities, social sciences and technical studies. He holds a Master’s Degree in political science and journalism, a PhD in political philosophy, and a postgraduate diploma in Big Data and data processing. In 2019 he was a Visiting Fellow in the Department of Government at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He published a book on the concepts of agonistic democracy (2018) and co-edited a book on the popular culture and ideology (2020).

Dr Filip Bialy is a Visiting Fellow in 2020-21. He will be at CRASSH in Michaelmas 2020 and Lent 2021.

In my current research I try to make sense of the concept of personal autonomy in the advent of Artificial Intelligence technologies in politics. My interest in that topic stems from the observation that at the heart of the idea of contemporary liberal democracy lies an assumption that citizens’ decisions, especially during elections, are free. Recently, the proliferation of narrow AI-based tools – such as micro-targeted advertisement, content recommendation systems, “Big Nudging” techniques, deepfake videos or social media bots – has had a significant impact on people’s political choices and behaviour. The very uncertainty of the extent of that impact poses a serious challenge for the democratic process: the autonomy of citizens’ decisions has been made suspect. Consequently, if voters’ choices are not free, the legitimacy of democratic institutions might be called into question. It thus seems to me urgent to reassess the way we think about personal autonomy. Furthermore, I am interested in putting these investigations in a broader context of our understanding of democratic agency, linking it with philosophical and literary theory, especially with post-Hegelian readings of ancient Greek tragedy and tragic, agonistic vision of politics as an open-ended struggle for freedom and equality for all.

Education

• University of Cambridge (2021)
• Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu
• Spring School in Adanced Research Methods University of Oxford (2019)
• Doctor of Philosophy - PhD Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu
• Master of Arts - MA Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu (2018 — 2019)
• London Summer School in Intellectual History Queen Mary University of London (2016)
• Master of Arts - MA Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu (2004 — 2009)
• Uniwersytet Warszawski (2014)

Companies

• Assistant Professor Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu (2021)
• Co-Founder ProScholars.pl (2015)
• Assistant Professor Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu (2021 — 2021)
• Assistant Professor Uniwersytet Kazimierza Wielkiego (2019 — 2021)
• Scientific Researcher Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu (2011 — 2021)
• Visiting Fellow University of Cambridge (2020 — 2021)
• Visiting Fellow The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) (2019 — 2019)
• Marketing Team Member Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu (2016 — 2018)
• Information Technology Support Staff Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu (2009 — 2013)