The beginning of the academic year is a busy time for everyone on campus. Since the beginning of September, our students and faculty have been busy both inside and outside the classroom. We’ve put together this round-up post to highlight the goings-on within Carleton’s Communication and Media Studies program. Read on to learn about some of the accomplishments and events that have taken place from Academic Orientation Day through to reading week.
WATCH: Dr. Joan Donovan delivers 2024 Attallah Lecture
On October 3rd at 7:00 PM, Dr. Joan Donovan delivered her lecture “Meme War 2024: Networked Incitement in the Static Age”. Dr. Donovan is an Assistant Professor of Journalism and Emerging Media Studies at Boston University, the founder of the Critical Internet Studies institute, and a co-inventor of the beaver emoji. Her lecture offered a contemporary analysis of the political communication strategies that leverage the ambiguity of memes to carry out media manipulation and disinformation campaigns.
As a result of some last-minute issues, Dr. Donovan was unable to join us in person, and so Dr. Benjamin Woo (Associate Director, School of Journalism, and Communication and Media Studies Program Head) dubbed it the “first ever Attallah watch party”. While Dr. Donovan delivered the lecture from her home in Boston, faculty, students, alumni, and community members gathered in Richcraft Hall to hear the lecture and enjoy some refreshments.
If you missed this year’s lecture, don’t worry – it’s available in full on YouTube! The video also features introductory remarks by Associate Professor Merlyna Lim, who holds the Canada Research Chair in Digital Media and Global Network Society. You can also see some photos from the evening @comscarleton on Instagram.
Welcoming new students at Academic Orientation
Every year on the Tuesday after Labour Day, Carleton hosts Academic Orientation Day or “AOD”. This is a day for students to get to know their new classmates and faculty, begin to understand where things are on campus, and learn about the resources and supports available to them during their time as Ravens. Students can also check out Expo Carleton and learn about the clubs, societies, and services they can get involved with.
This year, on September 3, we hosted two orientations: one for our new undergraduates, hosted by Prof. Liam Young, and the other for new Masters and PhD students, hosted by Prof. Sandra Robinson. Check out some photos from AOD here!
COMS Congratulates MA, PhD candidates on successful defenses
Our whole program extends congratulations to three PhD candidates and two masters candidates who have successfully defended their theses/MREs in recent weeks.
Three of our PhD candidates recently successfully defended their PhD theses: Dr. Elena Kaliberda, whose research concerns the European public sphere and media institutions (radio and television), and Dr. Bethany Berard, whose dissertation connects histories of photography and the idea of information towards an informational account of photography, and Dr. Agnes Malkinson. Congratulations to Drs. Kaliberda, Malkinson, and Berard!
R:Dr. Bethany Berard, L: Dr. Elena Kaliberda
In addition, two MA students successfully defended their work – one their thesis and the other their MA research essay:
- Jen Siushansian MA (thesis) Playing Autistic: A critical examination of autistic characters on-screen from Hollywood to Hallyuwood
- Taryn Rerrie MA (MRE) The ‘Dripping Tap’ of Incivility: Analyzing responses to Mayor Olivia Chow’s posts on X
In case you missed it, over the summer we profiled Dr. Carly Dybka, who graduated with her PhD in June. Stay tuned for profiles on Dr. Kaliberda and Dr. Berard.
Prof. Susana Vargas Cervantes co-curates Cantando Bajito: Chorus exhibition at Ford Foundation Gallery
Assitant Professor Susana Vargas Cervantes is one of the curators of Cantando Bajito: Chorus, a new exhibition at the Ford Foundation Centre for Social Justice in New York. The exhibition, which opened October 8 and runs until December 7, is the final movement of a three-part exhibition series celebrating strategies for resistance in the wake of rising gender-based violence. It assembles archives and artwork from: Hoda Afshar, Archivo de la Memoria Trans Argentina (Trans Memory Archive Argentina), Archivo Memoria Trans México/Hospital de ropa (Trans Memory Archive Mexico/Clothing Hospital), Chloë Bass, Tania Candiani, Fatma Charfi, Lizania Cruz, Cyberfeminism Index, FAQ?, Cecilia Granara, Los Angeles Contemporary Archive, Mai Ling, and Textiles Semillas (Textiles as Seeds).
Cantando Bajito: Chorus is described as “an invitation to reflect on the importance of collective making, organizing, and care arising from interdependence in shared struggles. The title, which translates into English as “singing softly”, is drawn from a phrase used by now-liberated political prisoner Dora María Téllez Argüello to describe the singing exercises she used to resist and survive while she was held in solitary confinement.
Read more about Cantando Bajito: Chorus in this piece on the Ford Foundation’s website.
Prof. Benjamin Woo co-publishes new article on the pedagogy of comic book fandom
Associate Professor Benjamin Woo’s newest article was published October 14 in Issue 3 of Popular Communication. The article, titled “How to be a fanboy: Wizard magazine and the pedagogy of comic book fandom,” was co-published with Kalervo Sinervo (Concordia) and Anna Peppard (Trent). Its focus is Wizard magazine, which published from 1991-2011. Wizard played an important pedagogical role as both a gateway to and a gatekeeper of fandom.
Initially launched as a guide to collecting comic books, Wizard later evolved into a lifestyle and entertainment magazine for a loosely defined “fanboy” readership. While arguably more accessible than the comics it covered, it addressed its audience in exclusive terms, assuming a normatively male, heterosexual, and white fan. Based on a close reading of a sample of eight self-reflective “milestone” issues, Sinervo, Peppard, and Woo’s article assesses Wizard as not merely a purveyor of market intelligence to comic book speculators but as a cultural artifact engaged in defining the meaning of fandom for a generation of comic book readers.
COMS student Danielle Carter selected for Global Undergraduate Awards
The Global Undergraduate Awards are an annual academic awards program that recognize the top work completed by undergraduate students all over the world. This year, for the first time, the awards included Mass Communication as an entry category.
COMS student Danielle Carter submitted an essay entitled “The All-American Couple Goes Platinum: The Public Relations Campaign of the NFL, Taylor Swift, and Travis Kelce,” which she wrote in the Winter 2024 semester for COMS 3310: Critical Perspectives of Public Relations. Her essay was selected as one of the top 10% in the Mass Communication category, earning her the “Highly Commended” designation. Congratulations, Danielle!
Those interested in reading Danielle’s essay can find it in the Undergraduate Library.
Prof. Miranda J. Brady publishes new book Mother Trouble
Associate Professor Miranda J Brady’s new book Mother Trouble: Mediations of White Maternal Angst after Second Wave Feminism was published by University of Toronto Press earlier this month.
Mother Trouble traces white maternal angst in popular culture across a span of more than fifty years, from the iconic Rosemary’s Baby to anti-vaxx mom memes and HGTV shows. The book narrows in on popular media to think about white maternal angst as a manifestation of feminism’s unrealized possibilities and continued omissions since the second wave. It interrogates intersecting systems of power which make mothers and their children the most impoverished people in the world and urges a greater appreciation in academic and popular thinking of the work that mothers do. Mother Trouble is Dr. Brady’s second book (and her first as sole author) after 2017’sWe Interrupt This Program: Indigenous Media Tactics in Canadian Culture (co-written with John M.H. Kelly).
If you’re interested in hearing more directly from Dr. Brady, we invite you to join us for a launch event at Octopus Books (Nov 14th, 7-8PM). Mother Trouble will also be the subject of an event in the Author Meets Readers series at Irene’s Pub in the new year.
Monday, October 28, 2024 in Communication News, Faculty In The News, General, News, Research, Special Events
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