I would like to call attention to a conference being held at the Leeds Town Hall form 26-27 November 2009 that will examine the HBO TV series The Wire as a focus for social science. The organizers are seeking papers that ‘utilize The Wire either as a topic or as a resource for the social sciences and the humanities.’ Of course, surveillance is a major theme of the series, so I am hopeful that some papers look critically at the social dynamics of surveillance in what some have called an ‘American nightmare’. If you have any interest, do look at their call for papers.