This article explores Surveillance Studies through an analysis of research articles published in Surveillance & Society between 2002 and 2024. It identifies major trends in the field by addressing three key questions: the factors underlying its emergence; the dominant trajectories of its research agenda; and the extent to which the field has critically challenged – or alternatively legitimized – surveillance discourse. To capture shifts over time, the period is divided into three phases, highlighting the role of changing social and political contexts in shaping evolving conceptions of surveillance. The findings suggest that Surveillance Studies emerged in response to the need to understand increasingly pervasive forms of surveillance, initially framed through a predominantly Panoptic lens and closely linked to concerns over privacy rights. They further reveal indicate that the field has been dominated by a critical and normative orientation. More recent scholarship, however, calls for greater openness to new approaches capable of overcoming the stagnation associated with mainstream Surveillance Studies. The study concludes by outlining how Political Science can engage more substantively in advancing the field.​​