Meg is a Ph.D. candidate (ABD) in the Collaborative Ph.D. program in Legal Studies and Political Economy. Their dissertation The Ghosts and Governance of Canadian Obscenity Law is a critical hauntological examination of Canadian criminal obscenity cases with a focus on the early 1990s with the Supreme Court of Canada precedent-setting case R. v. Butler [1992) to present day. Meg is excited to contribute to the ongoing spectral turn in criminology.
Lonergan’s research interests include cultural and critical criminologies; ghost criminology; hauntology; porn studies; horror studies; law, culture, and the humanities; moral regulation; censorship; research ethics; critical pedagogies; folklore and crime myths (especially cannibalism and snuff films); true crime media; and qualitative methods.
They are currently the senior research assistant on a true crime media research project with Dr. Steven Kohm (Criminal Justice, University of Winnipeg).
Co-Supervisors
Dr. Lara Karaian (Criminology, Carleton University) & Dr. Steve Jones (Media Studies, Northumbria University)
Education
Master of Arts in Gender Studies, Queen’s University
Thesis: Governmentality Gone Wild: How the Separation of Sex Workers from ‘Communities’ Contributes to Violence Against Sex Workers
Honours Bachelor of Social Science in Joint Honours Criminology & Women’s Studies, University of Ottawa
Courses Taught
- Criminal Justice System
- Law in the Information Society
- Feminist Controversies in Sex and Law
- Risk in the Legal Process
- Law and Violence
- The Sociology and Fear and Risk
- Crime, Emotion, and the Senses
- Cultural Criminology
- Digital Criminology
- True Crime Media
Selected Publications
Lonergan, Meg D. (Forthcoming). Book review: The horror of police by Travis Linnemann. Theoretical Criminology.
Lonergan, Meg D. (June 22, 2023). Politicians shouldn’t determine where Paul Bernardo is imprisoned, regardless of his crimes. The Conversation. [Online].
Lonergan, Meg D. (2023). Consuming ghost stories: The spectre of snuff films is haunting Canadian obscenity. The Annual Review of Interdisciplinary Justice Research, 12, 147-178.
Lonergan, M. D. (2023). Book review: A Long, Dark Shadow: Minor-Attracted People and Their Pursuit of Dignity by Allyn Walker. Crime, Media, Culture, 19(1), 158-161.
Lonergan, Meg D. (2022). “Real Scary/Scary Real”: Consuming Simulated and Authentic Horrors in the Digital Era. Horror Studies, 13(1), 63-75.
Lonergan, Meg D. (2020). Hard-on of darkness: Gore and shock websites as the dark tourism of digital space. Porn Studies, 7(4), 454-458.
Lonergan, M. (2020). Book review: Theatricality in the horror film: A brief study on the dark pleasures of screen artifice by Andre Loiselle. Horror Studies, 11(2), 282-284.
Lonergan, Meg. (2019). It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s security as pacification! Security as Pacification in Superman Red Son. Panic at the Discourse, 1(2), 77-86.
Lonergan, M. (2019). Book review: Why horror seduces. Horror Studies, 10(1), 133-135.
Lonergan, M. (2018). Book review: Solitudes in the workplace. Canadian Woman Studies, 32 (1-2), 144.
Lonergan, Meg. (2018). The surrealism of men’s rights discourses on sexual assault allegations: A feminist reading of Kafka’s The Trial. Atlantis: Journal of Women’s Studies & Culture, 39(1), 18-30.
Lonergan, Meg. (2017). Witches, bitches, and white feminism: A critical analysis of American Horror Story: Coven. Render: The Carleton Graduate Journal of Art and Culture, 5(1), 1-12.
Selected Conference Presentations
“The Difference Between Playing Dead and Being Dead,” (June 2023). Law, Culture and the Humanities, University of Toronto.
Book Discussion Panel, (June 2023). On Brenda Cossman’s The New Sex Wars: Sexual Harm in the #MeToo Era, WGSRF at Congress, York University.
“Canadian Psychos: The Spectre of Snuff is Haunting Canadian Obscenity,” (June 2023). CLSA at Congress, York University.
“‘Who’s Supposed to Know It When They See It and What Are They Supposed to Do About It?’ A Critical Examination of Federal Laws, Government and Police Policies Governing Obscenity,” (May 2022). Consuming Justice: Law, Crime, Justice and Consumption, hosted by The Centre for Interdisciplinary Justice Studies and the Centre for Access to Information and Justice, University of Winnipeg.
“Rethinking Victimhood and Harm in Canadian Obscenity,” (January 2022). Carnal Crimes Conference: An Online Conference on Sex and Sex Crime Narratives in Literature and the Arts, Dublin City University (online).
“True North, Strong and Obscene: Mapping the Snuff Mythos in Canadian Obscenity Law Post-Butler,” (August 2021). Slasher Studies Summer Camp: An International Conference on Slasher Theory, History, and Practice. University for the Creative Arts, Birmingham City University, The Arts and Humanities Research Council UK (online).
“Handling harm or fearing fictions? The criminalization of obscene, extreme, and objectionable content in Canada.” Horror, Cult and Exploitation Media IV: An Online Workshop for PhDs and ERCs| Northumbria University, UK, May 13th, 2021
“Hard-on of darkness: Gore & shock websites as the dark tourism of digital space.” Centre for Interdisciplinary Justice Studies Conference| Winnipeg, Canada, May 6th, 2021 [online due to COVID]
“Explicit governance: Authenticity, simulation and snuff in the digital era.” Canadian Law and Society Annual Conference, Vancouver, British Columbia, June 3 to 5th, 2019
“Real scary/Scary real: (Dis)simulated horrors of snuff.” Law, Culture and the Humanities, Chateau Laurier, Ottawa, Canada, March 22 & 23, 2019
“Some Thing You Just Can’t Snuff Out: The Libidinal Economy of Snuff Films.” International Meeting of Law and Society, Toronto, Canada, June 7-10th, 2018.
On social media @Spooky_Academic and www.spookyacademic.com