Michael Mopas

Areas of Interest

Criminology; socio-legal studies; sound studies; science and technology studies; science, technology and law; crime, media and culture; cyber-crime and cyber-governance; policing and surveillance; governmentality; actor-network theory; food studies

Professor Mopas is currently accepting graduate students interested in the fields of: 1) criminology and socio-legal studies; 2) science and technology studies; 3) sound studies; 4) food studies; and 5) cultural studies.

About

Michael Mopas is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology. He is cross-appointed to the Institute of Criminology and Criminal Justice and the Department of Law and Legal Studies. He is also a member of the Duncombe Studio for Social and Cultural Research.

Michael holds a PhD from the Centre of Criminology and Sociolegal Studies, University of Toronto. He specializes in the area of science, technology and law. His past research has looked at the regulation of the Internet and representations of forensics in popular culture. He has also published articles on public criminology and access to research.

Michael is currently completing a SSHRC-funded project that examines the place of sound in law. The study explores the ways in which judges hear and make sense of auditory evidence presented at trial and documents the work of audio forensic experts in making, interpreting and rendering them audible. As one of the few places where scientific facts and technological artefacts are opened up to scrutiny, the study uses the adversarial setting of the courtroom as a site to investigate the mutually constitutive relationship between science and technology, on the one hand, and law, on the other.

More recently, Michael has turned his love for music into a new research project that explores the relationship between technology and emotion by looking at the ways that electronic artists produce ‘feeling’ and ‘soul’ with what are often thought of as cold and unemotional instruments (e.g., laptops, turntables, effects pedals, etc.).

In his spare time, Michael plays upright bass in several jazz bands in the city and participates in long-distance triathlons. He has completed two Ironman races (Lake Placid and Mont-Tremblant) and several 70.3 events. In September 2019, Michael will be starting a BMus (Honours) degree (part-time) here at Carleton U.