Communication
(PhD)

We carry out and support research that investigates the social, cultural and political impacts of algorithms powering platforms, social media, surveillance technology, supply chains and other key infrastructure. We are interested in feminist, alternative and decolonial AI and we do research creation projects that engage critically with AI and big data. Our research questions address algorithmic bias, data infrastructure and its environmental impact, policy regulation and the ethics of AI, as well as data justice and tech-led gentrification. 

Faculty: Stefanie Duguay, Fenwick McKelvey, Alessandra Renzi

We examine the place of sound in everyday life and explore how documentary, VR, or AR shifts our perceptions, policies, or sense of place. We explore listening and sound through remixing workshops, field recording, audio art, sound maps, live performance, podcasts, augmentation, spatialized sound, sampling, electronic composition, dj and vj culture and more. We engage with documentary and expanded media practices such as projection mapping, virtual reality and installation-based cinema.

Faculty: Owen Chapman, Antonia Hernandez, Alessandra Renzi  

We undertake media studies and research-creation that engage the material world, nature cultures, ecological systems and histories. We are especially focused on the disproportional impact of environmental violence on BIPOC and other marginalized communities. Our research looks at anthropogenic climate change, science and technologies of the environment, food studies, waste studies, environmental toxicity and ecological media. 

Faculty: Arseli Dokumaci, Antonia Hernández, Krista Lynes, Peter Van Wyck

We support projects on questions of representation and ideological structures of mediation from an intersectional feminist perspective. Our expertise lies especially in feminist/queer political movements, experimental media and artistic practice and the social and technological forces that require a gender-based analysis. Critical work intersects with anti-racism, decolonization, disability justice, aging, STS and queer/trans* studies. 

Faculty: Krista Lynes, Kim Sawchuk

We examine how games shape and reflect contemporary culture and how the industry has developed into a global influential business. We experiment with the medium of games by making games, by exploring how the form can be advanced and by studying how they are used for social impact, dialogue and more. 

Faculty: Mia Consalvo

We explore how media shapes the identities of sexual and gender diverse people over time and space and research how LGBTQIA2S+ people represent themselves through new digital technologies and alternative media forms. We also consider broad questions of gender and sexuality in and through feminist theory, queer theory, trans* studies and other intersectional lenses.

Faculty: Stefanie Duguay, Krista Lynes 

We explore how media-activism, co-creation, participatory or community-based media are informed and inspired by social movements, emergent technologies and ethics. We engage with diverse forms of participatory and horizontal mediamaking that include data activism, design justice and pluriversal design. Our research and teaching covers historical as well as contemporary forms of alternative media and media activism. 

Faculty: Arseli Dokumaci, Monika Kin Gagnon, Krista Lynes, Alessandra Renzi

We engage with the histories of media industries, technologies and forms (film, television, newspapers, print media, photography, computing) and research the multiple intersections of media studies, media archaeology, cultural history, art history, history of science and technology, history of religion, esotericism and magic, colonial and postcolonial studies, critical race studies and memory studies. The program also supports research and research-creation projects involving archival work and/or the construction of archives.

Faculty: Charles Acland, Sandra Gabriele, Fenwick McKelvey, Jeremy Stolow, Peter Van Wyck