Abstracts and Bio’s

Connecting Canada Connecting the World Bio’s and Abstracts

Lynne Alexandrova

Bio

Lynne, PhD candidate at the University of Toronto, studies relational epistemologies and worldviews,

 Abstract 

Connecting Canada Within and To Itself

The Canadian brand of Communication Studies started with Innis’s impressive scholarship about the fur trade, which did not fail to recognize the role of Indigenous people and the living beings whose gifts powered it up, at the cost of the extinction of many of them. In the early days, joining Indigenous networks was critical for the success of the pioneering fur trades, and the fur trade was effectively what created the economy to help Canada stand on its feet, and look to development and expansion. The Canadian state chose to disconnect from its Indigenous allies, whose military and economic support had been crucial in the days after initial contact and for quite some time after.

The British North America Act of 1867 did not include Indigenous people as a co-signatory, and their relationship with the Canadian state was relegated to the all-round problematic one-way imperative “Indian Act” of 1976.

In Canada’s 150th anniversary year, it is as urgent – and as timely – as ever to think about reconnecting: think of John Ralston Saul’s “A Fair Country” and “The Comeback” as blueprint and indeed predictor of what can organically re-connect Indigenous and Nonindigenous Canadians, and look to Alanis Obomsawin’s cinematography (Trick or Treaty, 2014 most recently) for why and how to do that lawfully. For what else properly represents a country’s meaningful wealth if not the healthy connectedness among its people(s) and our healthy connectedness to the land thanks to which, and thanks to whose cornucopia we are able to exist at all?!

Steve Bailey

Bio

Steve Bailey is Director of the Joint Graduate Program in Communication and Culture at York and Ryerson Universities and Associate Professor in the Department of Humanities. He is at the author of Media Audiences and Identity: Self-Construction in the Fan Experience and Performance Identity: The Trauma of Appearance and the Drama of Disappearance, as well as a number of articles and book chapters on topics related to critical theory and media culture.

Abstract

Out of the Shadow of McLuhan: Arthur Kroker’s Contribution to Canadian Communication Theory

In this paper, I examine the particular contribution of media theorist Arthur Kroker to a distinctly Canadian paradigm of communication research.  While the “Toronto School” and the larger media ecology approach has tended to dominate attention to a Canadian communication paradigm, I argue that Kroker’s work (and particularly the influential 1980s and 90s “postmodern” analysis) constitutes an equal or perhaps greater contribution to global media studies.  Blending the Toronto tradition of medium theory with a distinctly French approach to the circulation of social meaning and indeed to the task of academic writing, Kroker creates a hybrid form of academic analysis that falls between Baudrillard and McLuhan, and between Adorno and Grant.  In the paper, I explore aspects of this contribution as well as the reasons why this crucial work is sometimes relegated to the “dustbin of postmodernity.”

Sylvia Blake

Bio

Sylvia Blake is a doctoral researcher and term lecturer at Simon Fraser University’s School of Communication. Her research traces the evolution of the media diversity principle and seeks policy tools to support diversity within Canada and globally in the context of evolving media technologies, industry globalization, and trade liberalization. She holds a Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship, and is a previous recipient of the CanWest Global Graduate Fellowship in Communications. She is currently Chair of the Emerging Scholars’ Network of the International Association of Media and Communication Research. Sylvia holds a BA (Honours) in Political Studies from Queen’s University and a MA in Communication and Culture from Ryerson University / York University.

Abstract

Institutionalizing Diversity in Canadian Policy

Taking discursive institutionalism as its theoretical lens, my project asks: Why is diversity of cultural expressions continually emerging and re-emerging as an integral goal of Canadian broadcasting policy? In what ways have domestic and international discourses surrounding diversity interacted and impacted each other? I investigate these questions using process tracing and frame analysis methods.

Diversity is a key principle of Canada’s broadcasting regulatory regime, reflecting the belief that heterogeneity in media sources, content, and exposure is crucial to support democracy, social inclusion, and multiculturalism. However, while there is broad agreement that ‘diversity’ in broadcasting is good; there is little agreement about what it means, or the appropriate role for policy in promoting a diverse broadcasting system. Canada has a history of contradictory positions on diversity: while it has traditionally maintained a “toolkit” of regulatory measures to promote it and has been a driver for global frameworks such as UNESCO’s 2005 diversity convention, the CRTC is often critiqued for not enforcing its own diversity policies, and for using policy to protect large domestic firms in a highly concentrated market.

This project unpacks the origins and myths surrounding Canada’s broadcast diversity framework. Taking discursive institutionalism as its theoretical lens, it asks: How has Canada’s approach to diversity in broadcasting evolved since the industry’s early days? In what other global and domestic spaces did discourses surrounding diversity evolve and impact Canada’s policy regime? In the context of broader domestic and global sentiments and trends, what might be the future of Canada’s broadcast diversity policies?

Using process tracing and policy frame analysis, I conceptualize diversity as a discursive institution that is polysemic, culturally constructed, and defined within an institutional framework. My analysis demonstrates the ways diversity has coalesced into discursive institutions in a range of domestic (CRTC, Canadian government) and global (UNESCO, WTO) spaces. I map domestic and global approaches to diversity in relation to each other, and illuminate instances of policy transfer wherein these frameworks shape and support each other. I find that both domestically and globally, diversity principles are frequently invoked to support policy goals that have little to do with democracy, inclusion, or cultural plurality.

Mary Ann Boateng

Bio

PhD Student for Communication and Culture

Abstract (Pending)

The Public Branding of Diversity: An Examination of Black News Anchors in Canadian Television Broadcasting

Ben Bradley

Bio

Ben Bradley has a PhD in History from Queen’s. He holds a Postdoctoral fellowships at University of Toronto and University of Alberta. Author of “British Columbia by the Road: Car Culture and the Making of a Modern Landscape” (2017). Bradley is the co-editor of collection “Moving Natures: Mobility and the Environment in Canadian History” (2016) and the co-editor of journal theme issues on Canadian tourism and provincial parks.

Abstract

Gaps and Dead Ends: Disconnection and Uneven Development in Canada’s Road Networks

Historians of transport in Canada have fallen over themselves in describing just how superlatively bad and ineffectual its roads were during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. They also give the general impression that this condition was ameliorated during the interwar years with the emergence of mass automobile ownership and an incipient Fordist state that invested heavily in new and improved roads. However, the ‘revolution’ that saw the automobile supplant the railway as the dominant mode of personal overland transportation was less far-reaching and monolithic than is made out. Drawing examples from Canada’s hinterlands, this paper examines the history of bad roads, roadlessness, dead ends, and failed schemes in what to many Canadians seemed like the nineteenth century, but was in fact the twentieth.

Olivier Côté

Bio

Olivier Côté has been Curator of Media and Communications at the Canadian Museum of History since 2015. This field encompasses postal history, the media (print, radio, film, television, the Internet and social media), transportation and advertising. He focuses on contemporary Canada, particularly on the concepts of myth, memory and nationhood, and the evolution of national identity.

In 2014, Olivier Côté published Construire la nation au petit écran, a monograph on the television documentary series Canada: A People’s History produced by the CBC. As a media historian, he is interested in the impact of mass communications on the understanding of history, the collective imagination and political cynicism. His current research explores Canadian television as a vehicle for modernity and identification with the nation in the 1950s and 1960s.

Olivier Côté has a Bachelor’s degree in History from Laval University, a Master’s degree from York University and a PhD from Laval University. He is a founding member of the website HistoireEngagee.ca

Abstract

The World on Canadian Television: CBC’s Public Affairs Programs (1952-1969)

This paper will be about the representation of ethno cultural minorities and of international reality on Canadian television, particularly in CBC-Radio-Canada public affairs programs from 1952 to 1969. It will be about the evolution of the Canadian sense of self in relation to the world. It’s «connecting the world» within Canada and outside of Canada.

Mary-Louise Craven

Bio

Mary-Louise Craven is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Studies, and currently serves as Undergraduate Program Director.

Abstract

Messages in an Edwardian Fonds of Postcards: Sustaining a Social Network of Young Canadian Women and Enabling Development of Social Capital

In earlier work, I argued against the popular view that postcard messages are primarily formulaic: while messages do contain generic phatic text, senders are also including rich informative stories.

Now, I further my discussion of the content of the messages by studying the messages contained in the “friends” social network. I consider how postcard networks functioned in the Age of the Postcard—as a means of social capital. Most of the postcards in the Auckland Family Postcard fonds were sent to, or sent by the Auckland girls, Nellie, Alice and Flossie, from 1905-1915 who lived intermittently at the family farm in a small town in Ontario. Cards were also exchanged with cousins in Ontario and Michigan. As well, since all three of the sisters became teachers, and taught at schools close to their home, and in the summers attended teaching courses at universities in Ontario, the fonds also contains postcards from their peers and their students. Thus, this fonds of 1159 postcards provides a window into social relations in a farming family in the first years of the twentieth century.

Unlike a collection, one of the layers of meaning that analyzing a fonds of postcards makes possible is to study the messages from a stable and known group of receivers and senders and figure out their relationships. It is also possible to chart the underlying structure of the social/communication networks. I have digitized the fronts and backs of all the cards, set up a database where I coded for relationship (“friend,” “family,” “student” or “unknown”), and for gender (among other variables), and using graphing software established a picture of the strength of the social networks between and among the family members, their friends and students. Social capital has been defined as ‘the information, trust, and norms of reciprocity inhering in one’s social networks’ (Woolcock 1998, p. 153). Relevant to my research, in 1916, Hanifan wrote about the importance of rural schools in America, “If he may come into contact with his neighbour, and they with other neighbours, there will be an accumulation of social capital, which may immediately satisfy his social needs and which may bear a social potentiality sufficient to the substantial improvement of living conditions in the whole community. (p. 130).

While Hanifan refers to face to face encounters, I suggest that the medium of the postcard allowed for the same “accumulation of social capital.” Analyzing the messages reveals the depth of the information exchanged about their profession, their schools, their students and their communities. This network of friends, almost entirely made up of the sisters’ female friends who they met while in training to be teachers, and when they were employed as teachers, communicated through the postcards to strengthen their social capital.

Kojo Damptey

Bio

Kojo Damptey is an interdisciplinary educator and facilitator; his area of interest is social justice with a focus on leadership theory, anti-racism, international development studies and postcolonial studies. He approaches these disciplines from an anti-oppressive framework with a foundation in Afro-centric traditions and culture. He also uses arts; specifically music to raise awareness on issues of human rights and equity from the perspective of a Ghanaian and African.

Abstract

Beyond 150: Ironing out colonial histories to move beyond diversity and inclusion.

On May 2016 Indigenous and Northern Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett representing the Canadian government removed its objector status to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The UN Declaration on the Right of Indigenous Peoples was adopted by the UN General assembly on September 13th, 2007, by a majority of countries; it must be noted Canada voted against it. It is against this back drop that one asks, what lies ahead beyond Canada 150? A country that touts diversity and inclusion as one of its important tenets for nation building.

Beyond 150 argues that until all levels of government from municipal, provincial and federal take a decolonial approach to the relationship between Indigenous nations and the Canadian state the status quo will continue. In order to disrupt the status quo an interdisciplinary approach is needed to address the call to actions from the Truth and Reconciliation report. Currently in the minds of Indigenous peoples the Canadian government has not done enough. As evident with the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Inquiry, the building of pipelines, increasing suicide rates of Indigenous teenagers and the large number of Indigenous communities without clean water.

Using decolonial theory and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples this paper maps out a pathway to creating cultural, educational, political and economical platforms to move into the next 150 years.

Elizabeth Edwards

Bio

Elizabeth is a PhD student in the Joint Graduate Communication & Culture program at York and Ryerson Universities.

Abstract

Public Service Broadcasting and Nationalism

An analysis of television programing on Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and Television New Zealand in the 2010s

Lily Falk

Bio

Lily Falk is a fourth year International Relations honours student at Mount Allison University with interests in education, radio and podcasting, and issues of reconciliation and decolonization. In fall 2016, Lily completed an independent study on Indigenous language education in Canada under the supervision of Dr. Mario Levesque. This summer she received a summer research grant to produce a podcast documentary about Indigenous language revitalization in Canada.

Abstract

Podcasts and Becoming a Better Listener

Podcasts hold the potential to connect us to people and issues outside our echo chamber. For the last three months, I have been collaborating with Indigenous language teachers, activists, and student to create podcast about their work on language revitalization. Both the process and product can make us better listeners.

James Forbes

Bio

James Alexander Forbes is a SSHRC Doctoral Fellow and PhD Candidate in Communication and Culture at York University. His general research focuses primarily on materialist perspectives in the philosophy and history of technology. More specifically, he is interested in questions of mobility and the medium, media archaeology, and machine ontology as it is portrayed in the literature and film of science fiction. He is also conducting research in queer theory, queer ontology, and is a lifelong advocate for HIV+ people. His proposed dissertation will examine the lived experience of HIV+ Long Term Survivors as a potential site for the positive reclamation of queer theory. It is also a means of championing and celebrating lives and stories that are frequently marginalized or overlooked. He holds a B.A. from McGill (English and Anthropology), a B.A. with Honors from Concordia (Philosophy), and a M.A. from Ryerson and York (Communication and Culture).

Abstract

Connecting the East: The Historical Work of Dr. E.R. Forbes as Communicative Action

The late E.R. Forbes was a tireless champion for Maritime Rights (his dissertation and later foundational monograph in regional historical studies) carried this title, after the political movement of the same name. His scope was the early 20th century, and he investigated railways, rum-running, and early feminist political movements among other historical events in the region. His work was frequently at odds with received versions of Maritime history in the center of the nation, and challenged the regional stereotypes still prevalent in academia today. This paper examines how his work can be read through a communication studies lens, and what it means in terms of a communicative act from the periphery to the center.

Magda Fusaro

Bio

Magda Fusaro has been at the Université du Québec à Montréal since 2001. As a professor in the Department of Mangement and Technology from January 2006 to June 2016, her research focuses mainly on the formation of social practices in connection with information systems and communication technologies, as well as ICT appropriation by users. She has been examining the ways in which ICTs and social practices converge for the past ten years. From January 2003 to December 2005, Magda Fusaro held the position of Assistant to the Vice-Rector for Academic Services and Technological Development at the University of Quebec in Montreal, and she has held the UNESCO Chair in Communications and Technologies for Development since December of 2006. From May 2009 to June 2015, she was appointed Head of Academic Programs in Information Technology. She has been Vice-President of Information Systems since August 1, 2016. A professor in the Department of Social and Public Communication at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), co-founder of the Groupe d’études et de recherches axées sur la communication internationale et interculturelle (GERACII), UNESCO Co-Chairholder in Communication and Technologies for Development, and a regular researcher at the CRICIS research centre, Christian Agbobli has always been interested in intercultural and international issues. This interest, which led him to learn several languages including Vietnamese, motivated him to ask how people from different cultures come to communicate in unfamiliar environments. He has many other interests but was limited by the space allotted him here.

Abstract

Internet, a vector of integration for new immigrants?

In a study funded by the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA), we analyzed the main factors contributing to the integration of new immigrants in Canada. Internet, social networks, family relationships, community of belonging, all of which play a fundamental role in the appreciation immigrants have of Canada! While everyone agrees to recognize the role of information and communication technologies (ICTs), it is surprising to note that the immigrants were already empowered before coming to Canada and that the Internet is not the only tool that contributes to their integration.

Jessie Gammarra

Bio

Jessie Gamarra is a graduate student in Art History at Carleton University. Her thesis examines the standardization of elementary school architecture and design in Ontario from 1945 to 1960, with emphasis on the Toronto and Ottawa areas. Jessie Gamarra is an MA candidate in the Art History program at Carleton University. She holds a BA in Art History from Carleton, which includes studies at Ryerson University and the University of Toronto. Her research centres on Canadian culture in the twentieth century, while her thesis specifically focuses on elementary school design in postwar Ontario.

Abstract

Educating Canada: the Postwar Elementary School

The standard elementary school found across suburban Canada is a long, low structure with many windows, a centralized administrative core, and separate kindergarten amenities. Developed throughout the postwar years as a response to domestic growth, immigration, and modernity, this building type provided teachers with an environment in which to educate the young citizens of tomorrow. Similar characteristics were adopted in school building practices across Canada, connecting the nation’s youth through the application of specific spatial tactics to cultivate a sense of unity and identity. Situated as a core component within emerging suburban neighbourhoods, the elementary school thus became a site of dialogue for policy makers, educators, and architects wherein the negotiation of national reconstruction goals, progressive pedagogical practices, and architectural debates on modernism could be played out. Stimulated by the changing conditions of modernity in the aftermath of war, these conversations would emphasize the importance of generating a communal democratic, egalitarian society for the future by targeting the individual experience early in the educative environment. The principle characteristics which resulted in a common type of school design across Canada in the midcentury emphasized new authoritative social structures and suggested spatial hierarchies and social patterns which connected young citizens from coast to coast through their daily modes of being, but also excluded certain people and experiences. Positioned as an ideological tool, this paper will analyze how the discourse and built reality of the postwar elementary school’s standardized form sought to connect Canada’s youth through contemporary architectural literature, provincial and municipal policies relating to school design, and case studies from different regions across the nation.

Denese Gascho

Bio

Abstract

Grey Zone: Designing Media Policy in the Footprint of a Colossus

Rachel Guitman

Bio

I am an undergraduate student in the interdisciplinary Arts and Science program at McMaster University. My academic interests are wide-ranging, but I am currently very interested in topics in medical humanities, health studies, social history, and gender, and the intersections of all of these. I am lucky to have the opportunity to do summer research through an Arts and Science Undergraduate Student Research Award. In completing this project, I have the pleasure of working with Dr. Amanda Ricci from the Wilson Institute as my supervisor. I also have experience and interest in researching pedagogical practices in higher education. In particular, I have worked at the Paul R. MacPherson Institute for Leadership, Innovation and Excellence in Teaching to research student-faculty partnerships as a means of enriching higher education. Our research team presented our work this summer at the Connecting Higher Education conference at University College London, which was an incredible experience that I was also lucky to have.

Abstract

Birth Control and Eugenics in Ontario and Beyond

This paper analyzes A.R. Kaufman, a Kitchener eugenicist, and his organization, the Parents’ Information Bureau — Canada’s first birth control information centre.  The analysis situates Kaufman’s activities in the context of global birth control activism, particularly focusing on the period during and after World War 2.

A.R. Kaufman, a Kitchener industrialist and eugenicist, established the Parents’ Information Bureau (PIB), a birth control information centre, in 1930. Through the PIB, Kaufman selectively disseminated birth control information, devices, and funded sterilizations. There is an existing literature that details Kaufman’s eugenic motivations and activities — primarily in the 1930s — as well as how those intersected with his classist, capitalist framework. Kaufman’s PIB targeted poor, married women and men for birth control and sterilization. He was a staunch capitalist notorious for shutting down unions and strikes in his factory, and his birth control dissemination started with his own employees. As well, Kaufman’s world view that poverty was a consequence of inherent inferiority demonstrates how his capitalist identity played into his adamant pro-birth control stance. This paper contributes to the history of eugenics, as well as birth control and sterilization legislation, in Canada by examining how Kaufman’s interaction with his social and political world shaped his eugenic activities. In particular, this paper traces and analyzes the continuity of Kaufman’s activities before and after World War 2. After World War 2, he became highly invested in international population control and helped fund experimental clinics in the Global South. The paper analyzes Kaufman’s operations in an international framework by situating them in the context of global birth control activism and perceived social ills. It explores how Kaufman’s operations in Canada connect to birth control rhetoric internationally, and changing global attitudes to both birth control and eugenics in relation to World War 2. This paper is based on consultation of University of Waterloo archives pertaining to A.R. Kaufman and the Parents’ Information Bureau, as well as the British Library’s Marie Stopes papers.

Jan Hadlaw

Bio

Jan Hadlaw is an Associate Professor in the School of Art, Media, Performance, & Design at York University, Toronto. Her research interests focus on histories of modern technologies and the imaginaries that have shaped their design and meaning. She is especially interested in 20th century technological artifacts, their representation in popular culture, and the roles they played in shaping and advancing modern conceptions of time, space, and identity.

Abstract

Connecting Canadians with Telephones and Design

While the telephone is a technology that connects people across great and small distances by allowing them to speak to each other, my talk focuses on how the design of a particular telephone, not its technological capabilities, acted to connect Canadians to each other through a shared sense of Canadian identity and a conception of Canada’s place in the world. The Contempra telephone was the first telephone designed and manufactured in Canada. Developed by Northern Electric in 1967 during the hype and excitement of preparations for Canada’s centennial celebrations, it was launched in 1968, just a few months late for its intended unveiling at Expo 67. Despite its tardy appearance, Canadians welcomed the Contempra with great enthusiasm and nationalist pride. Its modern streamlined appearance and its wide range of vibrant colours made the Contempra a critical and commercial success at home and abroad, creating an international reputation for Canada as a leader in communications technology and modern industrial design. Drawing on corporate papers, government documents, and oral interviews, my talk shows how the Contempra telephone acted as a potent material signifier of Canadian-ness at home and abroad in addition to being a communications medium that connected Canadians to each other and the world.

Helen Hambly Odame

Bio

Dr. Helen Hambly is Associate Professor in the Capacity Development & Extension program in the School of Environmental Design and Rural Development in the Ontario Agricultural College at the University of Guelph. Dr. Hambly’s research focuses on technology and rural areas. She leads the R2B2project.ca which is a major research initiative in Canada on rural broadband. Before joining the University of Guelph, Dr. Hambly worked in various international agricultural R&D programs. She has professional and senior policy-level experience with The World Bank, United Nations, the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC). She has co-authored or edited three books and over 25 refereed papers on topics such as rural development, communication processes, agricultural knowledge translation and transfer, and information and communication technologies for rural and agri-food innovation. Helen grew up on a family farm in Southwestern Ontario.

Abstract

Rural Communication and Change in Ontario, Canada

Even larger than the combined areas of Italy, France, Switzerland, Belgium and The Netherlands, Canada’s most populous province, Ontario, is a massive area to connect, and keep connected. Ontario has distinct communication divides, North and South, East and West, and of particular interest to this paper, remote, rural, suburban and hyper-urban. Although there are massive transportation and telecommunication issues in Ontario, the past 150 years can be characterized as a myriad of challenges of connecting across, and furthermore, beyond, its vast distances. This paper will focus on rural and remote connectivity in Ontario over the past 150 years. It critiques dominant models of system change that fail to achieve capacity development and neglect citizen perspectives that need to be taken into account to address the most important economic and social challenges of our time, including resilient communities, security of human well-being and livelihoods and environmental sustainability. Economic and societal dimensions of communication and media in rural Ontario, from farm radio to broadband are highlighted. Looking ahead to system innovation in Ontario is certain to involve some key structural changes, such as closing rural-urban connectivity gaps, improved coordination of public-sector investment efforts and greater competition in rural broadband Internet services.

Meghan Ho

Bio

Meghan is a second year Master’s student Carleton University in the Department of Art History.

Abstract

James W. Strutt and Louis Archambault at the Ottawa Uplands Airport

With the introduction of the passenger jet in the 1950s and increasing technology in the Jet Age, the air terminal building became an important symbol of late modernity. This paper explores the construction and architectural design of the 1960 Ottawa Uplands Airport, an important piece of Canada’s aerodrome infrastructure.

Derek Hrynyshyn

Bio

Dr. Derek Hrynyshyn is a sessional Instructor at York University in the department of Communication Studies. He holds a PhD in Political Theory from York University; author of “Limits to the Digital Revolution: How Mass Media Culture Endures in a Social Media World” (Praeger, 2017).

Abstract

Constructing Canadian National Consciousness in the age of Social Media

The Canadian project of nation building has relied heavily on the state investment in, and careful regulation of, various technologies including rail, radio, and television systems. But for many, the idea of the promotion of a consciousness that is specifically national is no longer feasible in a media environment that includes today’s globally networked communications infrastructure. This paper will argue that while this is not necessarily the case, the current architecture of communication networks and state institutions must be transformed if the Canadian nation-building project is not to be undermined.

By recognizing the goals of communication policy as involving the protection of an industry capable of producing content that can promote national consciousness, the problem of the internet’s facilitation of access by Canadians to content from outside the country can be seen as a problem of a flow of capital from Canada outwards. (PPF 2017, Stursberg 2016) This context provides a useful starting point for the evaluation of proposals such as the zero-rating of Canadian content, the so-called ‘netflix tax’, or Internet Service Provider levies. (Geist 2016)

The paper will examine such recent proposals for regulation of internet-based flows of cultural content to promote Canadian national consciousness. Setting these proposals in the context of the political economy of Canadian cultural production, and in the history of regulation of media for national purposes, allows for a more effective evaluation of these proposals than is the case otherwise. In particular, understanding the central problem being faced by policy makers as one that involves both cultural and industrial / economic goals, (Armstrong 2016) and the important differences between recent technological innovations and earlier ones that led to policies such as infrastructure investment and broadcast quotas, makes clear that deeper transformations of policy are necessary to continue to further national goals.

References:

Armstrong, R. Broadcasting Policy in Canada, 2nd Edition, (University of Toronto Press, 2015)
Geist, M. “The Billion Dollar Question: How to Pay for Melanie Joly’s Digital Cancon Plans”, Michael Geist (blog), November 15, 2016, michaelgeist.ca.
Public Policy Forum (PPF), “The Shattered Mirror: News, Democracy and Trust in the Digital Age”, January 2017, ppforum.ca
Stursberg, R. “Cultural Policy for the Digital Age”, n.d., https://techlaw.uottawa.ca/sites/techlaw.uottawa.ca/files/culturalpolicyforthedigitalage.pdf

 

Jenna Jacobson

Bio

Jenna Jacobson is a PhD Candidate at the University of Toronto in the Faculty of Information. Her research is situated at the intersection of social media, branding, and community. She works at the Ryerson University Social Media Lab on a Canada Research Chair project, and is part of the Semaphore Research Cluster in Toronto. She is the also a Chair of the International Conference on Social Media & Society.

Abstract

Connected Canadians in the Social Media

Social media managers are responsible for managing a company, government, person, or brand’s voice online across social media platforms. This research critically examines the role and practices of work in the social media industries, which highlights the voices of those who labour behind the invisible screens in social media across Canada.

Steve Jankowski

Bio

Steve Jankowski is a PhD candidate in the Joint Graduate Program of Communication and Culture at Ryerson University and York University. He holds a MA in Communication from the University of Ottawa, and a BDes from the York \ Sheridan Design Program. His research explores historical and contemporary issues concerning the political design of encyclopedic knowledge.

Abstract

Connecting Canada with Wikipedia: An Edit-a-thon

We are proposing a Wikipedia edit-a-thon as a workshop for Connecting Canada – Connecting the World. The purpose is to inform Canadian scholars on an alternative mode of disseminating research, on the process of collaborative cultural production, and to engage with questions of academic authority.

An edit-a-thon is an event where individuals gather to add information to Wikipedia on a specific topic. Such events usually act as critical interventions within topics that are under-represented in the encyclopedia. As such, they often occur within institutional settings and raise questions on the representations of race and gender. In the context of the conference we want to aid scholars in sharing their expertise with Canadian topics to the broader Wikipedian community.

Edit-a-thons build upon the notion of collective intelligence set forth by Jenkins (2003), Levy (1997), Terranova (2004), and Crack (2015), which encourage multiple ways of knowing while giving individuals the ability to publish transnationally and opening public debate to global channels rather than through traditional academic outlets. Additionally, such an intervention aligns with Leitch’s assessment of Wikipedia’s educational benefit. In “Wikipedia U” (2014), he describes how beyond adding facts to Wikipedia, editing the encyclopedia allows contributors to engage with the paradoxes of — and contests over — authority.

In the context of this kind of workshop, our purpose is twofold: to encourage this facet of collaborative editing to academia and to address under-represented Canadian topics on Wikipedia. Through this edit-a-thon, participants will reflect on being active agents in their own knowledge production and how this knowledge is distributed to other communities on a global scale. To execute this workshop, we require a space that can comfortably accommodate 15 participants for three hours. As each participant will be required to bring their own laptop, we will need adequate electrical outlets, a projector for a brief presentation, and space to offer light refreshments.

Candies Kotchapaw

Bio

Candies Kotchapaw is an independent researcher and associate of the Global Labour Research Centre at York University. She received her Master and Bachelor of Social Work degrees from York University in 2016 and 2015 respectively. As an independent researcher, Candies has undertaken studies on the impact of precarious work in social services on workers whose race and gender identity, particularly in the female dominated profession of social care/social services, where possibility of advancement within the agency is concerned, serves as a barrier for promotion into managerial positions. Candies has also written from a Critical Race Theory perspective on the importance of racialized social workers being fully engaged in the public policy development process here on Canada. As a junior scholar, Candies hope to continue to engage in conversations that reach the heart of issues that impact marginalized communities, with particular focus on issues that affect the black community.

Abstract

Developing young leaders: The legitimacy of belonging

This paper seeks to explore the current federal Liberal government’s focus on youth engagement as a social determinant of inclusion in shaping Canadian public policy, beyond tokenism.

Mr. Justin Trudeau has mandated that his cabinet and broader structure of government be representative of true diversity where race and gender are concerned. Now, the real task begins of how to successfully integrate race, gender and age identity to develop, promote and foster a sense of belonging for youth from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds.

This paper suggests that core debates and consultations with youth of diverse backgrounds, where social issues, strengths and weaknesses in systemic structures and the role the government is required to play to shift the status quo to include real issues of youth from diverse backgrounds is a fundamental requirement to successful and sustained engagement of youth in shaping Canada’s future.

Mary Grace Lao

Bio

Mary Grace Lao is a PhD candidate in the Joint Graduate Program of Communication and Culture at Ryerson University and York University.

She holds an MEd from Brock University and a BSc in psychology from the University of Toronto. Her doctoral research explores the relationship between government, press, and public discourse on rape culture.

Abstract

Rape Culture, Gender-based Violence, and Women’s Rights in Canada

The notion of a culture of rape has been a point of contention among feminist groups, scholars, mainstream Canadian broadcasters, law enforcement, and government bodies. While this discourse has been highlighted recently, it is a topic that has been discussed, and often in conjunction with women’s rights for autonomy since the start of the 20th century. In the US, the focus of this discourse circled around a greater discussion of the physical act of sexual violence, with the 1970s as an increased visibility of sexual assault as a public problem. The question of whether conceptualizations of rape, sexual assault, and/or gender-based violence are similar or different between Canada and the US is the focus of this paper. The quick, and almost obvious answer to this question is “yes,” given that Canadians—especially those live closer to the US border—are heavily immersed in American pop culture, news, and politics. However, a more nuanced exploration of how rape discourse changes over time in Canada is at the core of this presentation. Based on an ongoing project collecting newspaper articles from the Toronto Star from 1970 until 1990, I engage in a textual and critical discourse analysis. From this analysis, I found a change that parallels the change in discourse in the US but with subtle differences, including discussions surrounding women’s rights, bodily autonomy, and government legislature that intersect with issues surrounding race and racialized bodies.

Peter Lester

Bio

Peter Lester is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication, Popular Culture and Film at Brock University. His research typically focusses on the history of the Canadian film industry.

Abstract

Co-producing Culture: Canadian Film in a Global Context

In recent years, against the backdrop of a highly-globalized media environment, there has been a marked turn in the Canadian film industry towards international co-productions as a production strategy – a move actively encouraged by the nation’s prominent funding institutions. Canada currently has co-production treaties in place with nearly 60 nations, and has co-produced, on average over the past decade, 60 such films per year, with roughly $500 million in total annual budget expenditures. Filmmakers have discovered that partnering with producers in other countries offers the benefit of the shared funding and pooled resources necessary to compete with Hollywood’s dominance of theatres and screens. This tendency, however, has obvious implications for more traditional understandings of national cinema, and national popular culture more generally, which have typically hinged on an assumption of a single, discrete nation of origin.

Through a focus on the pronounced presence that this particular funding model occupies in the contemporary landscape of film production in Canada, this paper considers the cultural and economic ramifications that such a tendency presents. What are the implications for Canadian culture, in terms of narratives, themes and representations on film, when filmmakers are beholden, in part, to the interests of producers and funding agencies from other countries?

Ultimately, I argue that international co-productions offer a fascinating and telling point of entry into discussions of national cinema precisely because they probe us – as audiences, filmmakers, critics, policy makers, and as a society as a whole – to consider what we deem important, and what we prioritize, when we attempt to define and understand Canadian culture.

Bryn Ludlow

Bio

Dr. Allison Crawford is a Psychiatrist and Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto, and Director of the Northern Psychiatric Outreach Program and Telepsychiatry at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.

Laura Eggertson is the Executive Director of the Adoption Council of Canada, a journalist, adoptee, and adoptive parent.

Tabitha McDonald is the Youth Speak Out coordinator for the Adoption Council of Canada, an artist, and a former youth in care.

Bryn Ludlow is a PhD Candidate in Communication and Culture at York University in the York and Ryerson Joint Program in Communication and Culture, and a Community Health and Education Specialist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.

Abstract

Mobile Digital Storytelling with Canadian Youth in Foster Care

Youth Speak Out Storytellers (YSOS) is a collaborative, mobile digital storytelling project with CAMH and the Adoption Council of Canada that explores the experiences, strengths, and needs of youth in foster care. Youth in, and from Government care in Canada use digital storytelling to express their experiences about being in foster/group care, and the importance of permanency. These stories not only elevate youth voice, but create a network of youth across Canada– a network for peer support and advocacy.

Digital storytelling allows youth and other community members to provide their ideas on building strengths and resilience by sharing their own experiences. At a recent workshop in Toronto, youth wrote powerful stories around the theme of a goodbye, which prompted stories about family rupture; voice/ voicelessness; being human/ animal; the need for a family even at older ages; belonging; and advocacy. The evaluation, which is ongoing, revealed themes related to: identity; belonging; internal/ external space and place; memory; hope; meaning; intergenerational relationships; and futurity. This project will help young people in/from care tell their stories, and educate the public and child welfare stakeholders about why youth in care need permanent families. We seek to elevate youth voice for effective action within the child welfare system in Canada.

Anne F. MacLennan

Bio

Anne MacLennan is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at York University and editor of the Journal of Radio and Audio Media. She is curating a show of historical radios and radio advertising with Michael Windover, accompanied by the just published book, Seeing, Selling, and Situating Radio in Canada, 1922-1956.  She has published in the Journal of Radio & Audio Media and Women’s Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, The Radio Journal, Relations Industrielles/Industrial Relations, Urban History Review and other collections. She works on media history, community radio, broadcasting, popular culture, Canadian history and Canadian studies, women, social welfare, poverty and cultural representations in the media.

Abstract

Ethereal and Enduring Connections: Radio in Canada

Jaqueline McLeod Rogers

Bio

Jaqueline McLeod Rogers is Chair and Professor at University of Winnipeg, in the Department of Rhetoric, Writing and Communication. She publishes on urban rhetoric and theory, spatial theory and Marshall McLuhan–particularly in relation to his interest in and contribution to urban and design theory.

Abstract

Toronto as “Canada’s Downtown”: Connecting and Dividing

As a non-Torontonian, I will consider the connective role of the city of Toronto as Canada’s lead urban centre. I will assess its position as a world-class city (looking at various rankings), as well as its (increasing and increasingly unabashed) national prominence as an urban centre—so that it is now positioned as our de-facto cultural capital (silencing any such claims that might be made by Ottawa or provincial capitals).  The cover of the main tourist magazine Toronto 2017 (SeeTorontoNow.com) refers to Toronto as “Canada’s downtown.”  My presentation will examine the (growing) accuracy of this claim, yet also raise questions about the dangers of entitlement accompanying both claim and reality—not least of which is courting resentment and backlash from other national urban centres.

Rob McMahon

Bio

Assistant Professor, Faculty of Extension, University of Alberta; Coordinator, First Mile Connectivity Consortium

Abstract

Community-Led Technology Development in Canada: Connecting Rural, Remote and Northern Regions through Indigenous Innovation at the ‘First Mile’

This presentation discusses the efforts of Indigenous peoples in Canada to build and operate their own networked digital infrastructures. For years, these communities have worked to address digital access divides and secure digital self-determination through a diversity of technology development initiatives. This presentation provides an overview of these activities, and discusses the First Mile Connectivity Consortium (www.firstmile.ca), a national association that First Nations technology organizations have founded to support this work.

Note: This presentation will hopefully include a First Nation co-presenter(s) from the First Mile Connectivity Consortium (TBC).

Daithi McMahon

Bio

Daithi McMahon is an Irish-Canadian writer and academic. He and his family emigrated to Winnipeg in the late 1980s and members of his family are spread across Canada from Vancouver to Montreal. He is lecturer in media production and scriptwriting at the University of Derby in the UK where his research interests include radio’s convergence with social media, Irish diaspora and social media, the future development of radio drama and practice based oral history projects. Daithi is currently writing his doctoral thesis on the impact of Facebook on the Irish radio industry. He is also a multi award-winning radio playwright, director, dramaturge, producer and audio editor with Henchman Productions.

Abstract

Closer to Home: The Use of Facebook by Irish Radio Stations to Engage Diaspora Communities

Prime Minister Trudeau’s recent state visit to Ireland in June 2017 reinforced the strong connection that exists between Ireland and Canada owing to the many Irish who have emigrated to Canada in search of a better life over the past two centuries. The trend of economic migration has continued in recent years including the period 2008-2016 which represented a significant spike in emigration, with Canada high on the list of destinations for the predominantly young, educated Irish. Using the local radio station Radio Kerry as a case study this research uses interviews with radio producers and expat audience members along with textual analysis of Facebook content, to reveal how members of the Irish diaspora living in Canada maintain a connection to home through a radio station and it’s Facebook page/ Irish emigrants maintain a longing for, and strong connection, to home. From the mid-nineteenth century, Irish immigrants to Canada used the media, primarily through the popular press to keep abreast of events in Ireland. However, since the arrival of the internet, expatriates have used radio streaming to stay in touch with home and maintain their ‘Irishness’. Maintaining this connection has become more developed today with advances in digital communication technologies, notably social media, and the ease with which these platforms allow people to stay connected. Along with live streaming of radio programming, Irish radio stations are using Facebook to engage expat audiences as members of unique local and national cultural communities. Facebook Live has become the latest tool used to offer live video stream to audiences around the world and Radio Kerry has adopted this new technology to offer audiences direct access to live sporting events. The radio station Facebook page also acts as a vibrant forum where audiences can access information and participate in debates and discussions before, during and after a match.

Rob McMahon

Bio

Assistant Professor, University of Alberta

Co-presenters:

Sally Braun, Western James Bay Telecommunications Network
Bill Murdoch, Nanaandawewigamig: First Nations Health and Social Secretariat of Manitoba and Manitoba First Nations Education Resource Centre.

Abstract

Community-Led Technology Development in Canada: Connecting Rural, Remote and Northern Regions through Indigenous Innovation at the ‘First Mile’

This presentation discusses the efforts of Indigenous peoples in Canada to build and operate their own networked digital infrastructures. For years, these communities have worked to address digital access divides and secure digital self-determination through a diversity of technology development initiatives. This presentation provides an overview of these activities, and discusses the First Mile Connectivity Consortium (www.firstmile.ca), a national association that First Nations technology organizations have founded to support this work.

This presentation includes two co-presenters from First Nations broadband service providers that are members of the First Mile Connectivity Consortium: Sally Braun from Western James Bay Telecommunications Network and Bill Murdoch from Nanaandawewigamig: First Nations Health and Social Secretariat of Manitoba and Manitoba First Nations Education Resource Centre.

Erica Melamed

Bio

Erica Melamed is a second year masters student specializing in the audience studies with a focus on use the of technology. She is a recipient of SSHRC, OGS, along with the York Graduate Scholarship. Worked as a teaching assistant for York University and interned with “CBC’s Dragons’ Den.”

Abstract

Negotiating Lived Experience in Modern Day Canada

With a growth in space dedicated to concert culture, this change is becoming increasingly connected with the Canadian experience. Further, in this space, mobile phones are being increasingly used. This practice reflects the negotiation of mediatized versions of experience in relation to lived ones without this diverse technology. While mobile phone usage has incredibly extended our ability to communicate with others in Canada and beyond, a question rising is the potential negative implications of this use on a live or unmediated concert experience.

David Meurer

Bio

David M. Meurer is a digital media researcher, producer and project manager. His work explores the evolving relationship between literature and technology through an interdisciplinary approach that draws on network theory and culture, media studies, theories of electronic literature, literary studies and narratology.  He currently teaches in the Digital Media and Journalism Program at Wilfrid Laurier University.

Abstract

Window on the World: Connecting Canadian and Global Cultures in _Out My Window_

In this presentation, I analyze Out My Window, an interactive documentary produced by NFB Interactive. My analysis begins by identifying components of the work that exhibit interdependent network topologies. In a series of network graphs I plot several distinct aspects of the project as collections of nodes and edges, including the navigational architecture, actor network, and distributed cultural production model.

I argue that the individual topologies of these distinct elements are homologous, and that this characteristic of the digital work is the key to how the user experience functions. The interdependent design elements support the thematic concerns and participatory components of the work in sophisticated ways. Produced by collaborative groups of cultural producers around the world, and expressive of globally diverse subject positions, Out My Window coheres together as an aesthetic and thematic whole. Yet it simultaneously invites contributions from its audience in a manner that draws on everyday social and digital practices and that is aesthetically and thematically consistent with the core components of the digital multimedia work.

By drawing together narratology, network theory, and interpretative techniques, this case study adds particularity to scholarship on network culture, providing insights into how the producers of an interactive documentary project negotiate the expressive affordances and protocological constraints of digital media platforms and the communication practices they enable. In its negotiations of these tensions, Out My Window is an exemplary expression of network culture and constitutes a successful and promising model for digitally connecting Canada to the world.

Paul Moore

Bio

Associate Professor of Communication and Culture at Ryerson University, media historian and historian of film cultures

Abstract

The Pan-American Electric Carnival: Border-Crossing Entertainments and Canada’s Place in Histories of New Media

When cinema was a new medium, Canadian entrepreneurial showmen quickly developed distinct patterns of circulation and program formats from their counterparts in the U.S., including Canadian-made scenes that briefly gave moving images of the young Dominion pan-American reach. Several paradigmatic cases of early traveling cinema shows will be profiled, within the context of dozens analyzed closely. These are drawn from my ongoing, qualitative content and geographic mapping of thousands of unique instances of early cinema newspaper publicity across North America and beyond. A key case will be EL & GH Ireland Brothers’ Pan-American Electric Carnival, which traveled from Newfoundland to British Columbia within Canada, across the Southern U.S. and into the Caribbean, Central and South America, along the way including RA Hardie’s 1897 Manitoba films within their variety program. While U.S. showmen quickly self-organized into specialized and saturated regional markets, several Canadian showmen, exemplified by the Irelands, forged a more meandering and circuitous path for their cinema circuits. While the shows were certainly commercial and theatrical, as opposed to later alternative, non-theatrical circuits, Canadian early traveling cinema shows seem neither to be in pursuit of profit nor population nor pattern, instead encompassing geographic, demographic, and national plurality, as opposed to U.S. shows’ systematic seasonal exploitation of delimited markets. Canadian shows, in a sense, used the new media technology to explore and reach novel connections with a Pan-American audience and their Canadian character was often central to their local reception.

Jonathan Obar

Bio

Jonathan Obar, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Studies. He also serves as a Research Associate with the Quello Center for Telecommunication Management and Law at Michigan State University. Recent academic publications address Big Data and privacy, internet routing and NSA surveillance, network neutrality, and digital activism. He is co-editor of Strategies for Media Reform: International Perspectives.

Abstract

Addressing Internet Surveillance by Re-Asserting Canadian Network Sovereignty

The political economy of internet routing in Canada contributes to domestic traffic being routed through the U.S. This threatens civil liberties by exposing Canadians to the surveillance of the U.S. NSA. This presentation addresses efforts to re-assert national network sovereignty and the benefits of repatriation of domestic internet traffic in Canada.

Jonathan Osborn

Bio

Jonathan Osborn (MA in Dance Studies, BA in English Literature) is a PhD candidate in Dance Studies at York University and a graduate member of Sensorium: Centre for Digital Arts and Technology. His SSHRC funded doctoral research examines the choreographic relations between human and animal bodies, and the staging of affective environments at zoological institutions. An accomplished artist and choreographer, Jonathan has received support from the Toronto and Ontario Arts Councils and maintains a movement practice invested in the solo form, speculative fiction and inhuman bodies.

Abstract

A Tale of Two Countries: Staging Canadian Identity at the Toronto Zoo

Since its creation in 1974, the Toronto Zoo has distinguished itself from its Victorian predecessor, the Riverdale Zoo, through the “naturalistic” staging of animals and global geographies. Organized into distinct “zoogeographical” regions, where specific flora and fauna are gathered together as representatives of ecological microcosms, the Toronto Zoo continues to participate in a paradigm of zoological design in which animals are embedded within heavily curated landscapes.  Two of its current exhibition areas – “The Canadian Domain” (1976) and “Tundra Trek” (2009) – stage visions of Canadian wilderness and “the North” with the assistance of animal “performers”.  However, these visions and different and are distinguished by the former’s depiction of a remote pastoral landscape largely devoid of conspicuous signs of contemporary culture and technology and the latter’s creation of a bounded, circumscribable, and heavily mediated space saturated with a profusion of scientific, touristic, and aboriginal cultural artefacts.  Building on the work of Animal Studies scholar Jane Desmond, this presentation will discuss the visual design and choreographed mobilization of human and animal bodies in both regions in order to examine the orchestration of divergent conceptions of Canada and Canadian wilderness.

Robert Paehlke

Bio

Professor Emeritus Environmental and Resource Studies Trent University. Founding Editor, Alternatives Journal. Most recent book Hegemony and Global Citizenship (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014).

Abstract

Environmental Protection in a Post-Hegemonic World

When 19 members of the G20 recently reaffirmed their support for the Paris Accord the group ‘became’ the G19. With no one following America there isn’t a hegemonic global system. This paper reconsiders environmental protection and other global policies within a possible multilateral future.

Tapas Pal

Bio

Assistant Professor, Dept of Geography, Raiganj University, India

Postdoc(Geography) from NEHU, Shillong, PhD in Geography (Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan), MA(Geography),MSC(Envi Sc),MA(Tribal Dev),MA(Gender Stu),MA(Education), PGD(Remote Sensing & GIS), PGD(Folklore), PGD(IPR), PGD(Disaster Management), B.Ed, UGC NET-JRF-SRF. Member of EJSSAH(United Kingdom),WJGRP(Nigeria),ORAS(USA),Scidu Press(Canada), AJHSS(Hong Kong), GJER(Switzerland),Spring Journals(Mauritus),NAGI (India),Bret Research (China),American Research Institute of Policy Dev,Macrothing Institution(Nevada). He is the author of 24 Books and presented papers in 45 different National and International Seminar. Already got 3 National Awards and 2 National Fellowships.

Abstract

“The tree is the lord of the forest…A symbol of life” (Rig Veda, IX 5.10 ).

Sacred groves are age-old traditional practices of our geographical territory and it has great ecological and non-ecological value (social, folk-culture, traditional, economical, and therapeutic) to conserve our environment in prolific way. People bound the sacred trees by yarn/plastics/cloths/ plastic small pitches to fulfill their wishes. Excessive changes in human demand & behavior our dear Earth suffer a toxic as well as polluted touch through environmental degradation and parallelly we forget the application of Traditional Culture. So Revive Environment Through, With and By the Perception of Environment

Mark Percival

Bio

Mark Percival is Senior Lecturer in Media at Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh. His 2007 doctoral thesis at the University of Stirling, Making Music Radio, focused on the social dynamics of the relationship between record industry pluggers and music radio programmers in the UK.  He has written about Scottish indie music production, popular music and identity, mediation of popular music and is currently working on speed and meaning in music, and music in superhero comics.  Mark presented music shows for BBC Radio Scotland from 1988 to 2000, and was a Mercury Music Prize judging committee member in 1998 and 1999.

Abstract

Connecting Canadians: Canada, Scotland and Popular Music Studies

Canadian Studies has been established in Scotland for several decades, most notably at the University of Edinburgh.  But what is it in the cultural relationship between Canada and Scotland that has stimulated ongoing connections in specific fields of humanities academic research and teaching?  Popular music studies has developed as an interdisciplinary subject area since the establishment in 1981 of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music, and Canadian scholars have been significant figures in and around IASPM throughout its history: Will Straw at McGill, Line Grenier at Université de Montréal, Keir Keightley at UWO, Scott Henderson at Brock, Mary Fogarty at York, and many more.

There are also Canadians that have come to Scotland for post-graduate study in popular music studies, at least one of which has settled in Glasgow and is developing a very successful career at the University of Edinburgh. Through a series of conversations with Canadian pop music scholars this paper explores the significance of their experience in Scotland and how social and cultural resonance between these two countries provides a context within which personal and professional bonds are established and remain strong through time and across geographical distance.

Kamilla Petrick

Bio

Kamilla Petrick is an adjunct professor in the Department of Communication Studies at York University and a Research Associate in the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies at Lakehead University. She lives and organizes in Toronto as part of the transit justice movement. Her research is located at the intersection of political economy, communication, and social movement studies.

Abstract

Public Transit as Power Medium

This paper will examine the grievances and tactics of a growing social movement for transit justice in Canada, focusing on the city of Toronto, from a critical communications perspective. More specifically, based on my organizing experience as a core member of advocacy groups TTCriders and Free Transit Toronto and informed by my theoretical grounding in Canadian communication theory, I will apply the insights of Harold Innis to critically discuss the political economy of public transportation infrastructure in Canada’s largest city.

Jonathan Petrychyn

Bio

Jonathan Petrychyn is a SSHRC Doctoral Fellow and PhD Candidate (ABD) in Communication and Culture at York and Ryerson Universities. His dissertation research looks at relationship between affect and cultural policy in the development of queer film festivals on the Canadian Prairies.

Abstract

Intersectional Festivals: Reconceptualizing Queer and Feminist Film Festival Circuits in Canada

The circuit is the prevailing heuristic for understanding the flows and connections between film festivals in Canada and globally. Drawing on archival research into queer and feminist film festivals on the Canadian Prairies, this presentation contributes to the growing literature on circuits by reconceptualizing it through the theory of intersectionality.

Venilla Rajaguru

Bio

Venilla Rajaguru is a Board Director of Science for Peace (Canada), and the Chair of a pan-university research-working group on Ocean Frontiers under Science for Peace. She also serves as an honorary council member of the International Peace Bureau (Geneva); and has previously served as the honorary Chair of ASEAN Secretariat Women’s Wing (ASEAN) 2009-2011. Recently, while she is completing her doctoral dissertation, she has been contracted as a Course Director at York for the following undergraduate courses: ‘Science and Technology Issues in Global Development’ (Dept. of Science & Technology Studies), ‘Natural Resource Management’ (Environmental Studies), and ‘History of the Environment’ (Natural Science). She is a working group member of an international research caucus on Science, Technology and Art in International Relations (STAIR), chartered in the U.S. under the International Studies Association, and also a member of the Extractive Industries Research Network. Her educational background is in Science & Technology Studies, International Law and International Development. Her former degrees are from the University of Oxford and Cornell. She has won the Susan Mann Doctoral Dissertation Award 2017-2018; was the recipient of the 2016 Vivienne-Poy Award for doctoral research on Asia; and had previously secured the Ontario Graduate Scholarship for doctoral research 2014-2015. She is Rhodes Scholar 1992. Her previous work experience spans public communications, community outreach, and corporate social responsibility consulting. After getting back to academia, her research focus is on the science & technology of transboundary infrastructure development, particularly those concerning maritime regions, peace regimes, regional and international security. Her publications include a book of poems, research based articles on the socio-politics of Southeast Asia, and on the geotechnical politics of island-building.

Abstract

Connecting the World: Canadian Gateway to Peace & Security

My paper covers three aspects of Canada’s historical role in connecting the world for peaceful purposes: 1) Canadian peace workshops over the South China Sea disputes throughout the 90s bringing together not just the disputed State parties in Asia but also the western democracies to negotiate scientific cooperation. Canada later became a state party to ASEAN Treaty of Amity and Cooperation and is now committed to investing more than CAD 200 million in S. E. Asian regional development, of which 14 million is committed to security infrastructure. 2) Canadian “Gateway Strategy”: a forward looking normative tenet of Canadian policy to bridge Asia and Europe. This part of my analysis will focus on Canadian economic development based on a government white paper that outlines Canadian leadership future interlinking education-economy and trade. I will also touch on cyber frontiers here, and how this new technological area is integral and can be the core of the Canadian “gateway” policy. 3) The last two aspects of political and diplomatic engagement in Asia and Europe will be compared and contrasted against current Canadian policy to abstain from and oppose nuclear weapons ban treaty negotiations at the UN, early-mid 2017. Since nuclear weapons have been successively understood as weapons of mass destruction, serving the very anti-thesis of peace, my analysis in this part of my paper will involve answering the following questions: i) why is Canada committed or seemingly focused on supporting nuclear weapons States in maintaining offensive nuclear capabilities?; and ii) how and why is NATO membership structuring Canada’s nuclear stance in connecting the world for deterring violence and establishing peace?

These three aspects of historical and futuristic policies is to be discussed in the larger context of Canadian leadership in interconnecting the world for global security and peace.

Julia Salles

Brazil-Canada Connections: Research-creation in Interactive and Immersive Storytelling

Bio

Julia Salles is a PhD candidate in Communication Studies at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQÀM, Canada). She holds a master’s degree in Contemporary Art and New Media from Université Paris VIII (France). She has been awarded a scholarship from the CAPES Foundation (under the Ministry of Education of Brazil) to pursue her PhD degree. She is the co-author of Bug404, a platform for the development of interactive narratives in Brazil, and a member of the Hexagram, an international network dedicated to research-creation in the fields of media arts, design, technology and digital culture.

Abstract

Canada is one of the leading countries in the development of virtual reality (VR) and digital storytelling. Throughout my research-creation in interactive and immersive media, I have developed different projects connecting Canadian expertise in those fields and Brazilian partners. Projects range from mobile application and virtual reality to web-platform and web documentaries.

This research is a study case that looks at these collaboration projects in the field of digital media in regards to their effectiveness in creating connections and shared-knowledge between Canada and Brazil. The main focus will be on Bug404, a platform about interactive and digital narratives that aims to contribute to the expansion of the field in Brazil through research-creation and research-action. It includes activities such as research and communication of studies about interactive narratives in the world and Brazil; lectures and workshops; exhibitions and events; support to establish a Brazilian network in the field; sharing knowledge and technical support for interactive documentaries of Brazilian partners.

The research also covers projects in the field of locative media and virtual reality. One of them is Margaret and Mina, a VR and multimedia installation co-developed and co-funded by Brazilian and Canadian institutions. Finally, the mobile application, SP-64, developed in collaboration with the Brazilian museum Memorial da Resistência, will be examined.

This research is funded by CAPES Foundation, a federal agency under the Ministry of Education of Brazil.

Ruth Sandwell

Bio

Ruth Sandwell is a Canadian historian who teaches at OISE and the Department of History at the University of Toronto. She has published numerous articles on the history of rural Canada, the history of education, and the social history of energy. In 2016 she published the monograph Canada’s Rural Majority: Households, Environments and Economies, 1870-1940 (University of Toronto Press) and the edited collection Powering Up Canada: Power, Fuel and Energy from 1600(McGill-Queen’s University Press). She is currently working on two projects, “Heat, Light and Work in Canadian Homes: A Social History” and “The Canadian Clearances: Land, Energy and the Transformation of Rural Canada, 1940-1980.”

Abstract

Energy and Everyday Life, Canada, 1860-1960: Connections and Disconnections

The keynote talk will pick up the conference theme of connections to highlight the ways in which Canadians’ everyday energy use has changed over the last century, transforming the connections amongst people and between people and their environment in the process. I will begin by providing a very quick overview of Canada’s last energy transition, emphasizing some of the common and the unusual characteristics of Canada’s society-changing shift from organic energy of wood, wind, water and muscle power to fossil fuels and electricity.  I will go on to outline two reasons why I think historians should be contributing to current discussions about the energy transition that we are about to embark on. I will conclude by briefly describing three specific ways in which historians just might be able to make important contributions to contemporary discussions, drawing primarily on examples from my own ongoing research to do so.

Hanako Smith

Bio

A 2nd year PhD Student at York University in the Communication and Culture program, Hanako is a communications scholar with a specialisation in media management.  She is interested in non linear digital media offerings and cross platform audience trends.  Specifically, her work examines the growth of Canadian television broadcasting through analysis of technological innovation, policy development, and audience measurement tactics.

Abstract

This paper explores how Canadian television content production, distribution, consumption, and audience measurement trends developed over time, and focuses on how content producers have strategized to capitalize on these trends. The objective of this paper is to examine opportunities for new audience measurement systems that integrate digital forms of audience interaction and engagement with traditional television ratings systems, in hopes of providing producers and advertisers with a new form of ratings ‘currency,’ or rather, standardized measurement system. This paper examines the particular example of television broadcasting in Canada, including three case studies which break down the entire timeline of television broadcasting in Canada into three distinct periods: Analogue, Digital, and Digital Interactive.  Each case study summarized the period’s broadcasting policy developments, broadcast production and consumption technological innovations, audience viewing trends, and audience measurement tactics. Additionally, each case study highlighted interviews from two key informants associated with a significant televised talent show as an example of content production from the time period. This paper concludes that while the Canadian television and media industry has already recognized the audience’s desire to have content available anytime, anyplace, and on any platform, third party audience measurement systems have yet to catch up.  Implications of these factors are discussed in the conclusion, along with suggestions for further study, and finally, the author suggests a framework for developing audience measurement systems for the Digital Interactive broadcasting period.

Noah Turcotte

Witnessing a Cultural Shift in Indigenous Architecture since Expo 67

Bio

Noah Turcotte is a fourth year student in Arts and Social Sciences from Carleton University, majoring in Honours, BA. History and Theory of Architecture with a minor in Geography Studies. He is on the Dean’s Honour List, maintains an Honours Scholarship, and is the Recipient Of The Carleton University C.U.R.O.P. Research Grant 2017 – Ongoing. Awarded to 15 students of high academic standing annually to research an area they are interested in. Research involves the legacy and impact of the Indians of Canada Pavilion at Expo 67 on subsequent Indigenous architectural representation in the past 50 years, the research my paper for this conference will be based on should I receive entry into it. Also in City Of Ottawa, Heritage Leader, 2017 – Ongoing, Museum interpreter at Pinhey’s Point Historic Site, Researcher of historic content into the Pinhey family as well as into the history of March Township. In the Practicum/Intern Program Student Brookfield Global Integrated Solutions Winter 2016, conducted research on Brookfield heritage buildings, drafted Heritage Guidance Documents for Brookfield Global Integrated Solutions, wrote a research paper on the changing conditions of Ottawa’s architectural environment. Turcotte also is The Organizer Of The CU In The City Panel Discussion, Carleton University, 2016. He assisted in organizing with Brookfield GIS member Andrew Waldron, the city panel discussion Old Buildings/New Forms: Transforming Ottawa, the talk discussed the various renovations the City of Ottawa was and presently is going through and how these changes are affecting the built environment of Ottawa.

Abstract

This research examines the change in appearance and meaning of Indigenous architecture in the past 50 years. It considers the Indians of Canada Pavilion at Expo 67 as a structure showcasing a ‘state-of-indigenous representation’ and an important step forward in the involvement of Indigenous communities in the design and construction of their own structures. The project highlights how Indigenous identity and culture are in the process of becoming more properly and readily conveyed throughout various Indigenous built environments across Canada. In looking at the legacy of the Indians of Canada Pavilion at Expo 67, this project uncovers and illustrates various different social, political and hierarchal meanings behind contemporary Indigenous architecture across Canada today. The art pieces done by various First Nations people in the Indians of Canada Pavilion, protesting residential schools and the colonial history of Canada, opened the door for Indigenous art programs within an architectural context and contemporary Indigenous architecture today to adapt an identity far more cohesive with Indigenous cultures. With the growing movement of expanding Indigenous rights in Canada and the country celebrating its 150th anniversary this year, this project provides an excellent opportunity to look back at the progression of Indigenous architecture since Canada’s centennial and understand the profound changes that have occurred.

I adopt a postcolonial perspective for this project, one that works to dismantle ethnocentric assumptions, reinterpret colonial history, and understand how colonial history, art and architecture have impacted the meaning behind Indigenous structures and the cultural landscapes of Indigenous communities today. This research relates to existing academic studies on the Indians of Canada Pavilion and the history of Indigenous architecture in Canada. But, while the Indians of Canada Pavilion has seen scholarly attention from Roger Randal, Jane Griffith, and Myra Rutherdale in their respected papers, its influence on subsequent Indigenous architecture, specifically twenty-first-century Indigenous architecture remains unacknowledged. My work adds to the growing field of Indigenous architectural history, pioneered by my co-supervisor, Dr. Daniel Millette, an expert in the field of Indigenous architecture, urban planning, archaeology, and Indigenous affairs. Moreover under the additional supervision of one of my Carleton University professors, Dr. Michael Windover, an architecture and design historian conversant in postcolonial theory and with expertise in twentieth-century Canadian modernism, my research discusses how the inclusive yet in ways problematic design process of the Indians of Canada Pavilion at Expo 67 started a conversation about how members of Indigenous groups should be involved in the decision making of architecture on Indigenous lands or for Indigenous purposes.

Enrique Uribe-Jongbloed

Witnessing a Cultural Shift in Indigenous Architecture since Expo 67

Bio

Full Professor at Universidad de Bogotá Jorge Tadeo Lozano. Enrique Uribe-Jongbloed has undertaken research for several years at the crossroads of identity, culture, language and media. He has written on the topic of Minority Language Media, Media Ecology (following McLuhan’s works) and Cultural Transduction. In 2016, along Prof. Sergio Roncallo-Dow and Edward Goyeneche, Enrique wrote a book revising the classic traditions of communication research under a media ecology perspective.

Abstract

Marshall McLuhan’s impact on Colombian Communication Research

The work of Canadian provocateur Marshall McLuhan has become the guiding light for a group of Colombian young academics, who have endeavored to bring his works into the light of the Colombian reality of the 21st century, by publishing a book connecting them with the classics of communication theory.

Mason Wales

Bio

PhD student in Cinema and Media Studies at York University

Abstract

Canadian Political Culture and the Threat of Americanization: Elitism and Disaffection in CBC’s The Best Laid Plans

My paper analyzes the CBC miniseries The Best Laid Plans (2014) as a way to think about the how disaffection is problematized in contemporary discourse about Canadian political culture. The series follows the events of a national election, at the leadership level on Parliament Hill and in a local MP race, and emphasizes growing public discontent with politics. Ruth Wodak asserts that political fiction contributes to what she calls “the fictionalization of politics” (Wodak, 2009). She argues that these texts reflect and exacerbate depoliticization and disaffection by presenting an appealing version of reality in which political processes are simplified and the complex problems of contemporary politics find their solution in the morality of politicians.
Taking a cultural studies approach, influenced by Stuart Hall’s theory of articulation, I perform an analysis of the series’ representation of national politics and the phenomena of political disaffection by examining the construction and articulation of three groups within Canadian democracy: ‘ordinary citizens,’ ‘the political class,’ and ‘the non-political elite.’ The depoliticization and disaffection of ‘ordinary citizens’ is portrayed as a problem created by ‘the political class’ abandoning ‘Canadian values’ and solved by ‘non-political elites’ who adhere to, what are posited as, distinctly Canadian political traditions rooted in noblesse oblige.

Miles Weafer

Bio

Doctoral candidate in York University’s Joint Graduate Program in Communication & Culture.

His dissertation addresses public discourse of public broadcasting during the tenure of Harper’s Conservatives. By detailing how politicians, and how CBC managers, advocates, and critics evaluate and project public broadcasting in Canada, Miles’ research highlights CBC’s privileged place in the national imagination of many Anglophone Canadians.

Abstract

Cutting the Anchor: CBC’s Place in an Age of Austerity

For eight decades Canada’s national public broadcaster, CBC/Radio-Canada (CBC), has played a key role in fostering what Benedict Anderson (1983) termed “nationally-imagined community.” Aligned with the national railway system both geographically and in the popular imagination, CBC continues to be projected as a central vehicle for national cultural development and remains a central image of Anglophone Canada’s national mythology (Charland, 1986). CBC programming contributes to Canada’s geographically-ordered national narrative (Berland [2009, p. 108]) as the broadcaster aspires to foster “a shared sense of specificity that exists beyond the mere physical contours of the nation.” (Dowler 1999, p. 344)

This paper critically examines the re-imaginations of CBC’s role in Canada’s mediascape, and place in the national imaginary, that emerged from CBC representatives, and from politicians, during the tenure of Harper’s Conservatives. CBC’s five year plan, A space for us all (2014), presented online migration as a cost-saving response to government cuts initiated in 2012. CBC’s president justified their rapid abandonment of infrastructure, including production facilities, by metaphorically depicting CBC as a ship navigating in difficult weather. (“Speaking notes”, April 10, 2014; “Speaking notes”, May 5th, 2014) Perhaps most significantly, vice-president Heather Conway questioned CBC’s role as a producer, describing a broadcaster stripped down to its essence and producing a “feeling of hereness” paradoxically distinct from any particular geographic space. (Conway & O’Brien, “Presentation”, November 19th, 2017).

This paper considers the degree to which CBC/Radio-Canada can afford to shed its material infrastructure while aspiring to foster national unity. It suggests that despite the relative financial security granted by Trudeau’s recent reinvestments (Canada, “Budget”, 2016), CBC’s existence as a national network, and as a nationalist icon, remain precarious as the Corporation aspires to produce national “place” without being anchored to any specific geographic space.

 Jessica Whitehead

Bio

Jessica Whitehead is a PhD candidate (ABD) at York University under the direction of Paul Moore. Her dissertation explores the history of cinema-going in Northeastern Ontario, and the rise and decline of the Mascioli theatre chain. Jessica’s research has been featured in the Timmins Daily Press, Timmins Today, and CBC’s Up North radio show. She is also the recipient the Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship, has a recent publication on movie star contests in the journal Transformative Works and Cultures, and several forthcoming publications concentrating on the history of movie-going and exhibition in Canada.

Abstract

The Production of Canada’s War Epic Captains of the Clouds

Film in the English-speaking regions of Canada has always been tied to the United States, and historically the majority of films shot in these areas were produced, financed, and directed by Americans. From Edison and Biograph to the “quota quickies,” American film companies routinely used Canadian locations without involving Canadian directors, actors, or writers. In the 1940s, the head of the National Film Board John Grierson and the RCAF partnered with Warner Brothers in order to help foster domestic film production in Canada. The result of this partnership was the first Hollywood big-budget feature shot in Canada called Captain of the Clouds, which was a wartime drama about bush pilots starring James Cagney. John Grierson promised that this film would feature Canadian writers and actors, and would increase Hollywood’s interest in Canadian stories. In the end, the only Canadian actors to appear in the film were stand-ins, the studio rewrote the script, and even the crew was from Hollywood. This paper will explore the shooting of the film in North Bay in 1940 and focus on the local newspaper coverage. I will also draw on internal Warner Brothers documents that discuss the making of the film, which include the studio’s correspondence with the RCAF and Grierson. Ultimately, the production of Captains of the Clouds was a failure for the NFB, but the film remains an important and understudied example of an attempt to foster domestic filmmaking in Canada by collaborating with Hollywood.

Michael Windover

Bio

Associate Professor and Supervisor of the History and Theory of Architecture Program, School for Studies in Art and Culture: Art History, Carleton University.

Abstract

Building Media Experience: The International Broadcasting Centre at Expo 67

This paper examines the design of the International Broadcasting Centre at Expo 67. It considers how media were self-consciously framed there and used to connect the events of Expo with Canadians and with global audiences. It also situates the building in relation to the CBC’s other architectural projects, which gave the crown corporation a public presence in both the built and mediated environments.