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Fall 2015:
Fall 2013 – graduate seminar
School of Journalism and Communication,
Carleton University
Couse Website: ourcourse.org
This course explores the production, reproduction and co-production of gender relations with a special focus on communication processes and institutions in the technological arena. Power is a key concept in this course, manifesting through the gendered power dynamics that play out between designers and users (and non-users), the deeply gendered cultural setting in which technological development occurs, and the gendered socialization practices and educational institutions that train designers and engineers. We will examine the communication of gender through the design of technologies, the technical artifacts themselves, and the use (and non-use) of technologies. How are gendered power dynamics reproduced through the trajectory of technological development? Who has the power to shape gender relations: designers, users, or both? Do designers embed gender into technologies? Can a technical object communicate gender? Is code gender-neutral? Do algorithms mediate gender relations? These are just a few of the questions we will examine while developing a critical analytical lens that is rooted in feminist science and technology studies (especially technofeminism) and influenced by critical internet theory and queer theory, among other gender-based approaches. Important examples for our analyses will come from social media platforms.
Fall 2012 and Fall 2011 – fourth year seminar
Pauline Jewett Institute of Women’s and Gender Studies,
Carleton University
This course explores social media and gender through the lens of social theorist Manuel Castells and critical internet theorist Christian Fuchs while simultaneously interrogating these theorists through a study of Judy Wajcman’s Technofeminism. These three core theoretical frameworks will be applied to the social, economic and political development of social media platforms while critically examining the role of gender in the origins, subsequent popularity and everyday use of social media.
Winter 2012 – third year course
Pauline Jewett Institute of Women’s and Gender Studies,
Carleton University
Do you think about gender and sexuality when you consume media? Do you find yourself critiquing hegemonic messaging when you watch television, catch a movie or read the news? How do these meanings get embedded in the media and do they matter? What impact does hegemonic communication have on audiences and society more widely? This course offers a critical exploration of the social construction and communication of gender and sexuality within society through a close examination of hegemonic messaging within the media. We begin by establishing the groundwork for a theoretical framework that we will use throughout the semester to discuss the relationships between the production and consumption of media and wider effects on society.
Winter 2011 – fourth year seminar
Pauline Jewett Institute of Women’s and Gender Studies,
Carleton University
This seminar examines possibilities and applications of critical analyses on gender, race thinking and the practice of racism, class, ethnicity, sexuality, and the modern coloniality of power to challenge and rework some theories, policies and practices of human rights, citizenship, feminism, globalization and transnationalism. It does so by exploring and theorizing some social experiences of women and men in interconnected localities around the world, including North America. Topics may include but are not limited to, who counts as human, and whose lives count as lives? The geopolitics of knowledge production and reproduction, epistemic violence, gendered and racialized violence(s); poverty, Indigenous Peoples, national/transnational security, and the politics of gender, development, national security and peace.
Winter 2009 and 2008 – third and final year of program
Division of International Communications,
The University of Nottingham Ningbo, China
This course involves an exploration of the relationship between contemporary society and the spread of new media. Lectures will focus on distinct topics each week, offering an in-depth examination of social, cultural, and political transformations. Topics include using new media, citizen journalism, conflict reporting, image management and power, group polarization and social acceptance, digitization, new social movements, surveillance, new media theory, and feminist perspectives.
Winter 2009 and 2008 – second year of program
Division of International Communications,
The University of Nottingham Ningbo, China
Through the application of a range of theoretical concepts and analytical methodologies students will gain insight into the differing forms of communication used by this particular area of the communications industries sector and the skills and knowledge required by its various institutional settings. Topics include media-specific methodological strategies, mediated communication, the internet and online identities, gaming and virtual lives, radio and the music industry, television and audiences, traditional and contemporary advertising.
Fall 2008 and 2007 – first year of program
Division of International Communications,
The University of Nottingham Ningbo, China
The course offers an introduction to communications theory through the study of key theoretical texts and examples of communications across a range of media. The course is divided into 4 sections: Power of Mass Media; Media as Mass Educator; Audiences of Mass Media; Theoretical Applications and Shifting Paradigms.
2009 and 2008 – first year of Master’s program
Division of International Communications,
The University of Nottingham Ningbo, China
This course involves a review of methods, an update of contemporary theoretical issues, and a refresher for presentation and citation skills in preparation for proposal writing, supervision sessions and the writing of an undergraduate dissertation. The second half of the course involves working closely with students to develop their thesis proposals and plan their research projects.
2009 and 2008 – third and final year of program
Division of International Communications,
The University of Nottingham Ningbo, China
This course involves a review of methods, an update of contemporary theoretical issues, and a refresher for presentation and citation skills in preparation for proposal writing, supervision sessions and the writing of an undergraduate dissertation. The second half of the course involves working closely with students to develop their thesis proposals and plan their research projects.