In September 1978, Carleton welcomed its first class of students pursuing a degree in what was then called “mass communication.” Since then, we have built a reputation for educational excellence while keeping pace with rapid change.
Today, we are a national leader in Communication and Media Studies. Through their research, our faculty and students contribute to key debates in our field and in public life. We offer one of the most diverse and broad-ranging programs in the country, providing students with strong foundations in the field of Communication and Media Studies.
CoMS40 Symposium
In 2018–19, as part of our fortieth anniversary celebration, we featured a series of special lectures from colleagues, collaborators, faculty and alumni that highlight our reputation as a centre of scholarly excellence and innovation in communication and media studies. These events culminated in a symposium, Histories—Theories—Archives—Archaeologies Symposium, held on September 14, 2018.
Professor Shannon Mattern (The New School, New York City) delivered its keynote lecture, “Amending Care: An Archaeology of Maintenance.” Dr. Mattern contributed to recent calls across a variety of disciplines to shift conversations about media and technology, which currently focus almost entirely on innovation, toward an emphasis on maintenance and repair. She argued, further, that scholarly and popular discourse should attend more seriously to the broad range of activities and histories that fall under the category of maintenance, such as women’s work, reproductive labour, information work, and practices of preservation, among others.