Brian Greenspan

Associate Professor – Utopian Studies; Science Fiction Studies; Digital Humanities; New narrative media

• Ph.D. (University of Toronto), M.A. (University of Western Ontario), B.A. (Hons.) (University of Western Ontario)
• Email Brian Greenspan

Research Interests

• Utopian Studies
• Science Fiction Studies
• Digital Humanities
• New narrative media

Current Research

My research traces the intersections of conventional narratives and new storytelling media, including hypertext and Extended Reality. I’m particularly interested in how utopian and dystopian fictions from any given era respond to narrative technologies, and in how insights from Utopian Studies and the study of new media might inform each other.

With colleagues at Carleton’s Hyperlab, I’ve researched and developed innovative storytelling media. My StoryTrek XR system makes it easy to create complex multimedia narratives for mobile devices that twist and turn depending on the reader’s location and style of navigation through real space. We’ve used the system for mobile stories and games, heritage conservation installations, and the critical study of social and literary spaces.

My long-term research project involves layering fictional communities (in the form of utopias, novels, serialized stories, unpublished manuscripts, and visionary drawings) over actual urban spaces. By using the city streets themselves as an interactive interface to historical representations of urban planning, decline, destruction, and renewal, I aim to create a speculative archive of the cities that were, and those that might have been.

Select Honours and Awards

• Carleton University Chair in Teaching Innovation, 2024-27
• Co-Investigator, CU Research Development Grant, 2024-25
• Collaborator, SSHRC Insight Grant, 2023-27
• Carleton Future Learning Innovation Fellow, 2023-24
• International Co-Investigator, Project Support Grant, Queen’s University Belfast, 2022
• SSHRC Knowledge Exchange Grant: Knowledge Mobilization, 2020-21
• Collaborator, Multidisciplinary Research Catalyst Cluster, 2019-20
• Collaborator, Canada Council for the Arts Digital Strategy Fund, 2018-20
• International Co-Investigator, AHRC Follow-on Funding for Impact and Engagement Scheme Grant, 2017-19
• Collaborator, SSHRC Partnership Development Grant, 2017-19
• Teaching Achievement Award, Carleton University, 2017
• Collaborator, FRQSC Appui à la recherche creation, 2016-19
• Collaborator, SSHRC Partnership Grant, 2015-18
• Network Partner, Leverhulme International Research Network Grant, 2014-16
• FASS Research Award, Carleton University, 2013
• Co-PI, Canada Foundation for Innovation Infrastructure Grant, 2013

Recent Publications

“Gaming.” In Jennifer Wagner-Lawlor, Peter Marks and Fátima Vieira, eds. The Palgrave Handbook of Utopian and Dystopian Literature. London: Palgrave, 2022.

Peter Fitting, Utopian Effects, Dystopian Pleasures. Ed. and Pref. Brian Greenspan. Intro. Fredric Jameson. Ralahine Utopian Studies Vol. 21. Oxford: Peter Lang, 2021.

“Postscript on the Cntl+Alt Society: Protocols for Locative Media.” In Shane Hawkins, ed., Access and Control in Digital Humanities. New York: Routledge, 2021.

Creator, Producer, and Technical Supervisor. Golden Days, Silver Nights. Mobile critifiction. Electronic Literature Collection Vol. 4. K.I. Berens, J. Murray, L. Skains, R. Torres, & M. Zamora, eds. Electronic Literature Organization: 2021. https://collection. eliterature.org/4.

E.C. Murphy, B. Greenspan, & S. Smith, “The Undergraduate Summer Intensive: Principles of Pedagogy and Design.” In Crompton, Lane & Siemens, eds. Doing More Digital  Humanities: Open Approaches to Creation, Growth, and Development. New York: Routledge, 2019.

“The Scandal of Digital Humanities.” In Matthew K. Gold and Lauren Klein, eds., Debates in the Digital Humanities 2019. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Selected Keynotes and Invited Lectures 

“Immersive Storytelling in the Hybrid Classroom.” Keynote Address. 2024 OUCeL Summer Institute, Carleton University, Aug 7, 2024.

“The Ether Medium of Storytelling. Panel 1: Medium and Message.Brian Greenspan in conversation with Louise Pelletier.” Negotiating Digital Space for Culturally-diverse Storytelling: Canadian Centre for Mindful Habitats, the Bachelor of Media Production and Design, Carleton University, and the Bachelor of Interior Design Program, Algonquin College. Ottawa, July 21, 2022.

“Fragments from the Archives: For a Dystopian DH.” Invited Lecture. Media Studies/Digital Media/Digital Humanities ’21 Speakers Series. Hartwick College, May 6, 2021.

“The Mobile Sleuth: Stories for Urban Media.” The 2019 Babcock Lecture in English. Hartwick College, April 29, 2019.

“From the ground up: Building a Digital Humanities centre.” Keynote address. Digital Humanities Symposium: Shaping Digital Narratives, Youngstown University, October 19-20, 2018.

“Strange Cognitions: SF and the Metanovum.” Plenary Lecture. Science Fiction Colloquium, Université de Montréal, December 11, 2017.

“Party Dress: Wearable Media for Utopian Bodies”. Keynote address. Digital Humanities Summer Institute-Atlantic (DHSI@Dal), May 10, 2016.

“Burning the Library: DH as Dystopia.” Closing plenary address. DHSI@Congress, May 30-31, 2015 Ottawa, Canada.

“New Worlds for New Media: A Digital Humanist’s Map of Utopia.” Keynote lecture for Digital Utopias: Literary Space(s) in the Digital Age, EGSA Annual Conference, April 3-4 2014, University of Texas-Arlington.

“Not in Kansas Anymore: Designing an Abducted Reality Game.” Keynote address. Canadian Game Studies Association Annual Conference, Victoria University, June 3-5, 2013.

Other Selected Presentations

“‘Why Chase the Past?’: Educating Desire with Extended Reality.” Society for Utopian Studies. Wrightsville Beach, NC, October 30 – November 1, 2025.

B. Greenspan & R. West, “Elementary, Watson: Using Fictional Experts to Model Artificially Intelligent Expert Systems.” CSDH 24, Université de Montréal, 06/20/24.

B. Greenspan & R. West. “Android Dreams: The Science and Fiction of Cognitive Estrangement.” 44th Annual Conference of the Society for Utopian Studies, Michigan State University, Oct. 17-19, 2019.

A. Pepper and B. Greenspan. “Tailing Rebus: Adapting a Best-Selling Detective Novel for Locative Mobile Media.” EURONOIR 2019, Sept. 30-Oct. 2, Aalborg, Denmark.

“Dazzle them with Baffles: Gauging Attitudes towards Digital Fabrication in an Online Musicians’ Community.” Digital Humanities 2017: ADHO Annual Conference. McGill University, August 8-11, 2017.

“Yesterday’s Island of Tomorrow: Augmented Reality as Utopian Space.” Society for Utopian Studies 41^st Annual Meeting. St. Petersburg, FL, October 27-30, 2016.

“Just What Is It That Makes Today’s E-Lit Labs So Different, So Appealing?” 2016 Electronic Literature Organization, University of Victoria, June 10-12.

“‘In small clumsy letters he wrote’: Utopian Media and the Future of Writing.” ACCUTE Annual Conference, University of Calgary, May 28-31, 2016.

“Agreeable Tactics: University Governance, Differentiation and the Digital Humanities.” ACCUTE Annual Conference, University of Calgary, May 28-31, 2016.

“Positioning Pedagogy: Locative media in and around the classroom.” Invited presentation for Post-Literate Pedagogies: The Digital Gymnasium panel, Canadian Society for Studies in Education 2014, Brock University, June 2014.

“Co-creative Destruction: Virtual Demolition as Nonviolent Resistance.” Paper Session: USS 2014: Utopia and Non-Violence; 15th International Conference of the Utopian Studies Society, Charles University, Prague, July 2-5.

Recent Graduate Supervisions

• Adrien Robertson, Ph.D. English. Topic: Digital Games and Community. In progress.
• Phineas Savchenko, M.A. Research Essay. Defended 2024. Topic: Posthuman Games.
• Co-Supervisor, Jenna Stidwill, Ph.D. Cultural Mediations. Topic: The Animation Archive. Defended 2019.
• Sarah Thorne, Ph.D. Cultural Mediations. Topic: The digital transformation of storytelling. Defended 2018.
• Adam Benn, Ph.D. English. Topic: The Political Economy of Digital Games. Defended 2017.
• Co-Supervisor, Matt Carroll, Ph.D. English. Topic: Antarctic Speculations. Defended 2017.
• Co-Supervisor, Ingrid Reiche, M.A. English. Topic: Digitizing the History of Pyrates. Defended 2016.