The will feature leading women and non-binary journalists from historically under- and mis-represented communities, who will share their stories and expertise.

鈥溞影稍粹�檚 first journalism class took place in October 1945. The first Mary Ann Shadd Cary Lecture is scheduled to take place 80 years later, in October 2025,鈥� Trish Audette-Longo, an assistant professor in the journalism program, said.聽

鈥淭his is an opportunity to celebrate and centre women and non-binary journalists鈥� work, and to give students in our undergraduate and graduate programs opportunities to meet some of their heroes.鈥�

The lecture series is named for Mary Ann Shadd Cary, the first Black woman publisher in North America and the first woman publisher in Canada. In 1853, Shadd Cary founded The Provincial Freeman.聽

鈥淢ary Ann was known for her impressive lectures, and for speaking the truth to audiences who sought change, but didn鈥檛 always understand her because she was an outspoken woman,鈥� said Nana aba Duncan, the Carty Chair in Journalism, Diversity, and Inclusion Studies and the founder of the Mary Ann Shadd Cary Centre for Journalism and Belonging at 杏吧原创 University.

鈥淚t has been my mission to make sure our industry recognizes and honours her legacy in journalism. Launching a lecture in her name 鈥� at Canada鈥檚 oldest journalism institution 鈥� is the perfect way to do it.鈥�

Shadd Cary鈥檚 pioneering spirit and unwavering commitment to supporting and advancing Black communities, education, and women鈥檚 rights through journalism laid the foundation for a more inclusive and just society. Her example will guide the selection of invited speakers, who will deliver public lectures at 杏吧原创 University.

The Mary Ann Shadd Cary Lecture Series will be a cornerstone initiative led by the and journalism faculty in 杏吧原创 University鈥檚 School of Journalism and Communication.

The new lecture joins a pair of long-standing annual series in the school. The annual Kesterton Lecture is named for Wilfred Kesterton, one of the journalism school鈥檚 first graduates and faculty members. The annual Peter Stursberg Foreign Correspondents Lecture commemorates Stursberg, who reported on the ground during the Second World War, becoming the 鈥渧oice of the frontline.鈥�

Journalist Omayra Issa, right, delivers the Kesterton Lecture, 鈥淏lack on the Prairies: a Journalistic Voyage鈥� in September 2022. Journalism professor and Mary Ann Shadd Cary Centre founder Nana aba Duncan, left, interviews her on-stage.

But the Annual Mary Ann Shadd Cary Lecture will look different from other public lecture series.聽

Journalism students will be hired and trained to join guest speakers on stage, where they will ask their own questions and moderate audience questions.

Mary Ann Shadd Cary lecturers will also deliver small workshops or seminars in journalism classes.聽

To make this possible, Audette-Longo and Duncan have launched and aim to raise $55,000 by March 31, 2025 to fund the first four years of the lecture series.聽

Journalist Pacinthe Mattar, second from right, is joined by executive members of the student-led Association for Equity and Inclusion in Journalism and Media at 杏吧原创 after delivering a special public lecture in September 2024. From left: Students Rachel Kwok, Carmela Carangan and Elissa Mendes, Mattar, and journalism professor Trish Audette-Longo. Photo by Jaime Sadgrove.

Audette-Longo said the lecture series will provide students with hands-on learning and more opportunities to imagine themselves doing journalism in the future.聽

鈥淲e have a wish list of established, award-winning, brilliant journalists we hope to bring to 杏吧原创, to talk about how they cover the stories that matter in their communities, in the world, in politics, on climate 鈥� there is so much to take on, and I鈥檓 so excited,鈥� she said.聽

Duncan emphasized the significance of this event, particularly as efforts to shut down programs focused on inclusion and diversity continue to grow.聽

“This is not the time to pause the work,” she stated. “On the contrary, now is when we double down and intensify our focus on people from historically underrepresented and misrepresented communities.”

.

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 – ! 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 .

Welcoming new students at Academic Orientation

Every year on the Tuesday after Labour Day, 杏吧原创 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 杏吧原创 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. !

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 鈥楧ripping Tap鈥� of Incivility: Analyzing responses to Mayor Olivia Chow鈥檚 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,聽a new exhibition at the 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,听Archivo de la Memoria Trans Argentina (Trans Memory Archive Argentina),听Archivo Memoria Trans M茅xico/Hospital de ropa (Trans Memory Archive Mexico/Clothing Hospital),听Chlo毛 Bass,听Tania Candiani,听Fatma Charfi,听Lizania Cruz,听Cyberfeminism Index,听FAQ?,听Cecilia Granara,听Los Angeles Contemporary Archive,听Mai Ling, and聽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 Mar铆a T茅llez Arg眉ello to describe the singing exercises she used to resist and survive while she was held in solitary confinement.

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 “,” was co-published with Kalervo Sinervo (Concordia) and Anna Peppard (Trent). Its focus is聽奥颈锄补谤诲听magazine, which published from 1991-2011. Wizard聽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 鈥渇anboy鈥� 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 鈥渕ilestone鈥� issues, Sinervo, Peppard, and Woo’s article assesses Wizard聽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 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 . Congratulations, Danielle!

Those interested in reading Danielle’s essay can find it in the .

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聽was published by University of Toronto Press earlier this month.

Mother Trouble聽traces white maternal angst in popular culture across a span of more than fifty years, from the iconic聽Rosemary鈥檚 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鈥檚 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.聽Mother Trouble is聽Dr. Brady’s second book (and her first as sole author) after 2017’sWe Interrupt This Program: Indigenous Media Tactics in Canadian Culture聽(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 . Mother Trouble will also be the subject of an event in the Author Meets Readers series at Irene’s Pub in the new year.

Austin was a third year student in the Bachelor of Communication and Media Studies who is remembered as a dedicated student, a kind and thoughtful person, and as a gifted and talented musician. They wrote, performed, and recorded two albums under the stage name Death Metal Witch: 2017鈥檚 Seventh Sorceress and Don鈥檛 Die, Just Disappear, which was completed shortly before their death.

Austin鈥檚 mother, Carr Evans, shared how much it meant to her that there was a chance to share their music with people who had also known how special they were. Carr said Austin started making music around the age of 12, and the sound of guitar riffs emanating from Austin鈥檚 bedroom had been a constant ever since.

Austin’s name has been added to a plaque on the Heintzman grand piano in St Francois d’Assise church in Ottawa. The piano was once played by pianist and composer Sergei Rachmaninoff, who passed away on the same day as Austin 80 years prior.

Prof. Benjamin Woo, Program Head for Communication and Media Studies, also shared reflections on his relationship with Austin. Austin had worked with Ben as a Research Assistant, and he reflected on how Austin was a committed and diligent employee whose skills and knowledge helped make the lab run more efficiently, especially when it comes to tasks like transcribing interviews. However, what stands out most of all was Austin鈥檚 kindness.

Austin had offered Ben a copy of Don鈥檛 Die, Just Disappear, but the handover never quite worked out. COMS Associate Professor Irena Knezevic, who had taught Austin during their time as a student, lent her copy for the group to listen to, while Profs. Josh Greenberg and Vincent Andrisani lent stereo equipment and musical knowhow to ensure the album would be heard at its best.

Death Metal Witch鈥檚 second album pairs beautifully moving melodies with an impressive display of technical skill. Don鈥檛 Die, Just Disappear has seven tracks, which move from heavy sounds that evoke anger or rage through to a place of introspection and sorrow before reaching the resolution:

1. Give me Pizza, or Give Me Death
2. Fuuk Shit UP!
3. Motor Mouth
4. From the Depths of the Void
5. Widow鈥檚 Eyes
6. Exhale
7. Trial by Fire

As the group listened to Austin鈥檚 music, it was clear the emotional impact it had on everyone in attendance. What stood out most clearly was Austin鈥檚 ability to take their many different musical skills 鈥� Austin played all the instruments on every song, in addition to writing, mixing, and producing the whole album 鈥� with a clear emotional vision and tone.

By the end of the listening party, everyone in the room was deeply moved – many to the point of tears. Reflections were shared on the technical beauty of Austin鈥檚 music, as well as surprise at how, despite metal as a genre having a reputation for harshness, Don鈥檛 Die, Just Disappear demonstrated a gentle presence. One listener called it 鈥渁 casual rhapsody,鈥� while another reflected that 鈥渋t must have been difficult to be that brilliant.鈥�

Carr thanked the group for listening with her, and said that while it was hard to listen collectively, she knew that getting people together to share music and experiences was what Austin wanted. For those in attendance that evening, Don鈥檛 Die, Just Disappear was a reminder of the importance of sharing art and closeness with the ones you care about.

The in-person event will be held on Tuesday, Sept. 27, beginning at 7 p.m. in Richcraft Hall, home to 杏吧原创鈥檚 School of Journalism and Communication, host to the annual event held in honour of Wilfred Kesterton, the late journalism professor and scholar.

In her lecture, Issa will review CBC鈥檚 Black on the Prairies, an expansive multimedia project that explores the richness, complexity, and multiplicity of Black Prairie life 鈥� past, present, and future, that she co-created and co-produced.

CBC News Senior Reporter Omayra Issa

Black on the Prairies emerged as a project with the intent to make sure that regional experiences of Black people in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, were included in the global and national discourse on anti-Black racism and Black experiences.

The Black on the Prairies project, and Issa鈥檚 recent work covering the Prairies for CBC, has won accolades. But it has also exposed her to a torrent of racism and online hate.

The evening will be moderated by Prof. Nana Aba Duncan, the Carty Chair in Journalism, Diversity and Inclusion Studies at 杏吧原创鈥檚 journalism school.

Issa plans to explore how Black on the Prairies can serve as a blueprint on how journalism can foster understanding of the communities it serves by constantly asking questions that complicate the dominant narrative and amplify lesser told stories. In this lecture, Issa makes a strong case for an inclusive journalism as a pillar of a healthy democracy in the midst of challenges.

Omayra Issa is an award-winning senior reporter for CBC News based in Saskatchewan. She is currently the 2022-2023 CBC/Radio-Canada Fellow, a part of the William Southam Journalism Fellowships at Massey College.

Born in Morocco, raised in Niger, and living in Saskatchewan for 20 years, Issa is fluent in five languages, and has a degree in Economics from the University of Alberta.

Prof. Nana aba Duncan, the Carty Chair in Journalism, Diversity and Inclusion Studies, will moderate this year’s Kesterton Lecture

She began her career with Radio-Canada in 2014 in Saskatoon, reporting on major Saskatchewan stories for a national audience from the Humboldt Broncos bus crash tragedy to the shooting of Colten Boushie and the Gerald Stanley trial. She covers breaking news, investigates a wide range of topics, and produces original content on digital, tv, radio platforms.

Issa co-created and co-produced CBC鈥檚 Black on the Prairies, a ground-breaking interactive project that brought to life stories detailing Black lives past, present and future in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Alberta. The project has won several accolades, including a national RTDNA and a Digital Publishing Award.

This event is free but those who wish to attend must register in advance as space is limited. A Zoom link for those who wish to take part virtually will be shared here closer to the date. To register please visit:

Symposium Program 鈥� Friday, September 14, 2018

Welcome/Refreshments 鈥� 8:15 am

Opening Remarks 鈥� 8:30 am – 8:45 am

Andr茅 Plourde, Dean, Faculty of Public Affairs
Josh Greenberg, Director, School of Journalism and Communication

Reflections: 40 years of communication studies at 杏吧原创 鈥� 8:45 am – 9:45 am

Facilitator: 聽聽聽聽聽 Sheryl Hamilton (杏吧原创)

Participants: 聽聽 Karim Karim,听Ross Eaman,听Michael Dorland,听Eileen Saunders,听Carole Craswell

Histories 鈥� 9:45 am

Panel Session

Chair and Respondent:听Miranda Brady (杏吧原创 University)

Presenters:

Samantha Burton聽(Mozilla)

3 times technology panicked a generation: lessons for a healthier internet, from a history of technophobia

Asking your AI assistant for the weather, giving your data to tech giants in exchange for 鈥榝ree鈥� services, and seeing toddlers swipe through YouTube may be new phenomena, but the headlines about these technologies — often laced with fear and a sense of disempowerment — are not. This talk will look back at a history of moral panic about tech we take for granted today (like the telephone and TV) to offer insight into which of our current fears are hyperbole and which are well-founded, and ultimately to suggest how we might build a future where a healthy internet puts people first.

Laura Tribe聽(OpenMedia)

Digital advocacy for the future of the Internet

For the past decade, OpenMedia has been amplifying the voices of people who are concerned about the future of the Internet to ensure decision-makers are held accountable to the public’s needs, wants and concerns. But the landscape of advocating for an open, affordable, surveillance-free Internet has shifted in Canada and around the world, as governments change hands, corporations amass power and concentration, and digital tools become increasingly accessible to all sides of the debate. In the recent net neutrality fight in the U.S., the FCC falsely dismissed an overwhelming amount of citizen comments as a DDOS attack — potentially just to avoid recognizing the groundswell of opposition they were facing.聽Because of this, mass mobilization is increasingly being discredited, and citizens’ voices are being dismissed by those who find them inconvenient. How can we learn from the past and use the power of concerned voices to聽ensure that democracy is restored — not destroyed?

Emily Hiltz (杏吧原创)

Notoriety as Postfeminist Sensibility

Drawing on research findings from an image analysis of contemporary notorious criminalized women, this paper considers the analytic of notoriety in light of ongoing feminist critiques of post-feminism. I argue these subjects embody their historical and cultural contexts. The discourses animating their images support contradictory postfeminist sensibilities of knowingness that work to encourage further speculation on the meaning of femininity, sexual agency, and image management in contexts of hyper visibility and self-discipline. This paper seeks to extend critiques of postfeminist media by considering the role images play in producing notorious figures that provoke recursive judgements and anxieties.

Break 鈥� 11:15 am – 11:30 am

Theories 鈥� 11:30 am – 1:00 pm

Panel Session

Chair and Respondent: 聽Chris Russill

Presenters:

Nora Draper聽(University of New Hampshire)

Unsettling the Communication Canon: Theorizing as Political Practice

What is a canonic text? This talk will engage questions of essential theory in the field of Communication Studies including what make a text canonic, the value of a disciplinary canon, and the need to rethink the parameters of 鈥渆ssential鈥� texts. Referencing both research and teaching, the talk will point to the politics of theory and consider what it means to celebrate the history of a discipline.

Faiza Hirji聽(McMaster University)

Theory Has Its Uses鈥攁nd Limits: Making Theory Work for Marginalized Populations

Advances in feminist, post-colonialist and critical race theories in the past few years have all helped scholars better understand the complexity of multiple oppressions for women of colour and religious minorities. However, while theory is a useful tool, academics that work with marginalized populations frequently discover theory鈥檚 limits. In the area of communication and culture, with particular emphasis on religious and visible minorities, we often come across some of following challenges: 1) conveying the significance of theory, which is complex, nuanced, and takes a long view, to populations that may be concerned with more basic and immediate needs; 2) understanding why audiences may ignore messages directed at improving their circumstances and instead favour messages and messengers that work directly against their interests; 3) understanding why audiences may endorse forms of media and popular culture that can be seen as biased or prejudiced against them; and 4) finally, addressing the ways in which theory can often address specific forms of oppression and even intersectionality, but cannot always provide all the answers for individuals or groups who may be experiencing multiple challenges and opportunities as they confront their own identities, as in the case of media producers who are visible minorities or groups whose members may be empowered in some instances and disempowered in others, and so on. In this discussion, we explore some of these challenges, and ask how we might address them in ways that allow us to use theory to its full potential.

Bethany Berard聽(杏吧原创)

Photography Theory: A Problem of Excess and Abundance

In the edited anthology 50 Key Writers on Photography, Joanna Lowry notes that 鈥淲riters have struggled with the problem of whether they are dealing primarily with a technology, a set of social practices, or an artistic medium, and the theoretical problems posed by this perennial ambivalence haunt every attempt to tell photography鈥檚 story or to establish coherent parameters for a theory of critical judgment or evaluation鈥� (2013, p. 21). How are we to theorize photography, when 鈥渋t,鈥� whatever that may be, evades definition? This paper provides a brief historical outline of how photography has been theorized and argues that the problems of abundance or excess that theorists of photography contend with can perhaps be considered as a theoretical solution rather than problem. Historically attempts to theorize photography have faced two key problems: the problem of the ontological flexibility and shifting nature of photographs, and the problem of the multitude of tools and techniques that make up the practice of photography, and with the advent of digital image capture these two problems have become increasingly pronounced. I suggest that approaching photography through communication and media studies can position these problems.

Lunch 鈥� 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm

Archives 鈥� 2:00 pm – 3:15 pm

Panel Session

Chair and Respondent:听Dwayne Winseck (杏吧原创 University)

Presenters

Irina D. Mihalache聽(University of Toronto)

Recipes in Competition:听Chatelaine, Canadian Home Cooks and Un-Making Cuisines

This talk uses recipes from the popular recipe competition “Fifty Favourite Recipes” (Chatelaine, 1951-1968) to demonstrate how negotiation is central to the formation of cuisines. The recipe competition – a form of culinary sharing – comprises recipes sent in by women (and some men)聽from all parts of Canada, which can be mapped out, geographically, to show a culinary culture in constant movement. Recipes such as Chop Suey, Dry Curry Powder and Real Italian Spaghetti are mobile as they incorporate “foreign” ingredients, which, through the process of circulation become (or are naturalized) as Canadian.

Jonathan Shaughnessy聽(National Gallery of Canada)

From archive to form: Contemporary art and the historical document

In recent decades the archive has become an increasingly prominent resource within contemporary art and exhibition-making. This interest speaks to a broader imperative of making visible that has been marginalized, or rendered subordinate to dominant historical narratives. Drawing from the NGC’s upcoming exhibition Vision Exchange: Perspectives from India to Canada, this presentation will examine some of the ways in which archival documents – ranging from the personal to the art historical, as well as the geopolitical – are transformed by artists using various media including film, photography, sculpture, and works on paper.

Nadia Hai (杏吧原创)

Magazines as Movement Archives: Comparing the Narrative themes of Daesh鈥檚聽Dabiq听补苍诲听Rumiyah,聽and al Qaeda鈥檚聽Inspire听尘补驳补锄颈苍别

This paper presents an analysis of Daesh鈥檚聽Dabiq听补苍诲听Rumiyah听尘补驳补锄颈苍别s and al Qaeda鈥檚聽Inspire听尘补驳补锄颈苍别, with a focus on issues published between 2011-2017.聽Dabiq,听Rumiyah听补苍诲听Inspire听尘补驳补锄颈苍别s are all published and distributed online in English. These publications represent part of a larger archive of al Qaeda and Daesh鈥檚 larger media operations creating and distributing content in multiple formats, languages, and across several platforms promoting wider global movement that appeals to those with little to no ties (e.g. ethnic, linguistic, kinship) to the land they are fighting in (e.g. Iraq, Somalia, Libya, Afghanistan). This archival data can shed light on聽the frames al Qaeda and Daesh use to appeal to their diverse audiences in Western societies聽and how these narratives shift over time.聽聽Analysing materials produced and distributed by al Qaeda and Daesh鈥檚 official media organizations like聽Dabiq听补苍诲听Inspire, provide important insights into what ideas or other movement texts the 鈥渙fficial鈥� or centre of the movement wants to present to their English-speaking audiences.

Break 鈥� 3:15 pm – 3:30 pm

Archaeologies 鈥� 3:30 pm – 5:00 pm

Keynote Lecture

Introduction: 聽Liam Cole Young

Shannon Mattern, Professor, The New School

Amending Care: An Archaeology of Maintenance

The past year has revealed countless breaches of responsibility: hacked accounts, unguarded data, fake news, Russian trolls, leaked recordings, broken global alliances, rigged elections, severed migrant families, sexually harassed women, and wilful deception at the highest levels of government. The list goes on. Such egregious and boundless negligence has incited detached discussions about revolt, remediation, and repair. In many academic disciplines and professional fields,听repair聽has taken on new resonance as an ethos, a methodology, and a political cause. As Andrew Russell and Lee Vinsel, leaders of The Maintainers movement, acknowledge, a shift in focus from innovation to repair and maintenance forces us to acknowledge the historical, political, social, cultural, and ecological contexts of technology and, more broadly, techne. We might say that studies of maintenance promote an archaeological framework. Yet I propose that that, in order to better understand and apply maintenance as a corrective framework, we need an archaeology of maintenance itself 鈥� one that more fully engages with parallel discourses of care; and that acknowledges the legacies of women鈥檚 work, reproductive labour, information work, and practices of preservation and conservation in various fields.

Respondent: 聽John Shiga聽(Ryerson University)

Off-site drink and snacks (Location TBD) 鈥� 5:45 pm