Department of Communication & Media Studies Archives - LA&PS Newsroom

In Memoriam - David Skinner

frisdikl — Mon, 19 Oct 2026 17:03:24 +0000

1956-2026

It is with heavy hearts and profound sadness that the Department of Communication and Media Studies announce the sudden and unexpected passing of Prof. David Skinner and his longtime partner Jennefer Laidley on Thursday, October 8, 2026. David Skinner retired from the Department of Communication and Media Studies in 2025.

David had many lives before academia. In 1984, he left his job as a car salesman to finish his BA at Simon Fraser University. There, he discovered media policy and was taught by key figures in the political economy of media in Canada, such as Robert Hackett and Richard Gruneau. He completed his Ph.D. dissertation in 1997, which focused on the political economy of English Canadian Broadcasting, and which he recently turned into a book: A Political Economy of Canadian Broadcasting: Public Good versus Private Profit (UBC Press, 2025).

Alongside his research into the political economy of the Canadian Media, David published in the areas of media democracy, and alternative and community media, including Alternative Media in Canada (2013, Edited with Kirsten Kozolanka and Patricia Mazepa, UBC Press) and Converging Media, Diverging Politics (2005, Edited with James Compton and Michael Gasher, Bloomsbury). David was more than an academic: his drive was always to mobilize research to foster community and a more just world. He was involved with the media reform movement in Canada for over twenty-five years, helping launch and organize the Media Democracy Days conference, which has been running since 2001. He presented at the Canadian Radio-Televisions and Telecommunications Commission in Ottawa under three occasions, always to defend the need for a media system that would allow a diversity of Canadian voices to be heard.

David played a pivotal role in developing the field of communication and media studies in Canada. He founded the Journalism program at Thompson Rivers University. He joined the Department of Social Science at 91��ɫ in 2002, and helped establish the Department of Communication and Media Studies, and the Joint Graduate Programme in Communication and Culture. He took on many administrative roles at 91��ɫ, including Department Chair for two terms, MA coordinator and University Senator. He was the director of the Canadian Media Research Consortium from 2010 to 2018. David was also one of the authors of Media and Communication in Canada for four of its editions. This textbook, now in its 10^th edition, has defined communication and media studies for thousands of undergraduates in Canada. David’s vision was that Canadian perspectives on media and communication are central to Canadian democratic ideals and to fostering Canada as a nation independent of big geopolitical powers. Needless to say, such contribution is as timely as ever today.

David taught the first-year Introduction to Communication and Media in Canada course at 91��ɫ right up until his retirement. Alumni might remember his passionate lectures on base and superstructure and economies of scale, alongside his booming laugh, which, amplified by the sound system of a big 500-seats lecture hall, became a memorable experience.

David was a bigger than life person. Colleagues and staff remember him as a kind and generous departmental leader and mentor, who gave rides to and from campus in an icy blue Mazda Miata. When supervising graduate students, David was both a rigorous and generous intellectual. For many newly hired faculty, David was a mentor and champion who taught how to navigate the complexities of the profession. David was always about community, always about conciliation and bringing people together. Conversations with him were always frank and honest. More than anything, David knew how to crack a joke and make light of any kind of situation. David, quite simply, was a good person. He also had the messiest office in the whole department, which he promptly recreated when he moved to Gabriola Island, BC.

David was always intellectually curious and had many interests and passions beyond academia. He took sommelier courses at George Brown and hosted memorable wine parties. In his retirement, he found a new passion in paper-making, which took him on research trips to Denmark, France and Italy this past year.

His partner Jennefer Laidley was a respected poverty and income security advocate for over 20 years. She was also a member of 91��ɫ’s community, graduating with an M.A. in Environmental Studies in 2005. She published highly cited articles and chapters on the transformation of Toronto’s urban waterfront.

This October, David and Jennefer embarked on an epic cruise throughout Polynesia to celebrate David’s 70^th birthday. They lost their lives while snorkelling in a coral reef in Samoa. The shock of their deaths is reverberating in many places: they had families and countless friends and close colleagues in BC, in Toronto and beyond, and were beloved on Gabriola Island. We mourn them, knowing that they touched so many lives, left countless good memories in their wake, and worked tirelessly to bring us all together to make a better world.

Read more about David Skinner in YFile.

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CMDS professor receives fellowship from��Higher Education Video Game Alliance

efulton — Wed, 26 Aug 2026 20:26:06 +0000

The Higher Education Video Game Alliance (HEVGA) has announced its 2026 Fellows at the Games for Change Festival. After a highly competitive selection process, Nick Taylor, associate professor in the Department of Communication & Media Studies, was selected as one of four new fellows for 2026.

The��fellowship program, which began in 2017,��recognizes scholars who have made��important��contributions to the field in design,��theory��or research��in the video games domain.��Fellows are��elected��by��their peers��for the��lifetime membership which��provides��the chance��to serve as ambassadors for the organization.

Taylor’s work��considers the cultural politics and practices of communities who make their living off leisure media, and incorporates ethnographic techniques with more experimental digital methods, as illustrated in��his��monograph,��The Grounds of Gaming��(2024). This book situates digital play’s longstanding racial and gendered inequities in the material conditions that make gaming possible.

Learn more on the .��

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91��ɫ U celebrates transformative research excellence, impact

baniiig — Wed, 20 May 2026 14:15:26 +0000

LA&PS professors honoured at this year’s President’s Research Awards��

On Wednesday, May 6, 15 members of the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS) were recognized for their research excellence and transformative impact across multiple categories at 91��ɫ’s President’s Research Awards. The annual awards program celebrates the creativity and outstanding research contributions of 91��ɫ’s faculty members.

The LA&PS recipients are:

Book Awards, Literary and Artistic Achievements
Desiree de Jesus – Exhibition on Black Girlhood in Canada, Toronto International Film Festival

Major Grants
Ann Kim – Project grant, Academy of Korean Studies, Strategic Research Institute Program

Other Learned Societies, Fellowships and Awards
Jimmy Huang – Fellowship, The institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Christina Sharpe – Killam Prize, National Research Council of Canada

Outstanding Early Career Awards
Eric Kennedy – Ontario Early Researcher Award, Government of Ontario

President’s Research Excellence Award (PREA)
Jimmy Huang - President’s Research Excellence Award

Significant Knowledge Mobilization & Impact Awards
Pat Armstrong - King Charles III Coronation Medal
Peter Constantinou - King Charles III Coronation Medal
Sheila Embleton - King Charles III Coronation Medal
Natasha Henry-Dixon - King Charles III Coronation Medal
Akolisa Ufodike - King Charles III Coronation Medal

President’s Research Impact Award (PRIA)
Kerry Kawakami – President’s Research Impact Award

YRCs and CRCs and Distinguished Research Professors
Aimi Hamraie – Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Technology, Society and Disability
Ian Stedman – Tier 2 91��ɫ Research Chair in Law, Policy and Personalized Healthcare
Ola Mohammed – Tier 2 Research Chair in Black Sonic Cultures

Explore the full list of this year’s President’s Research Award recipients from across 91��ɫ.

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LA&PS professors receive SSHRC Connection Grants for vital projects

efulton — Fri, 13 Mar 2026 20:18:57 +0000

The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) has announced the recipients of the November 2025 SSHRC Connection Grants. Ten 91��ɫ research projects received funding.

Congratulations to the researchers from the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS) whose innovative projects were selected. These projects span a wide range of disciplines and demonstrate the depth and diversity of research expertise within our Faculty.

The one-year Connection Grant funding will support key knowledge-mobilization activities including events, workshops and outreach initiatives that help strengthen the impact and reach of this important work.

Projects involving LA&PS researchers are listed below.

Converging and Conflicting Buddhist Legal Frames: Secular Governances and Buddhist Transgressions, led by Alicia Turner (associate professor, Department of Humanities, LA&PS) with co-applicant Benjamin Berger (professor, Osgoode Hall Law School), received $24,619.

The Relational Turn: Looking Back, Thinking Ahead, led by Ruth Buchanan��(professor, Osgoode Hall Law School) and co-led by��Annie Bunting��(professor, Department of Social Science, LA&PS) and the University of Toronto, received $20,096

Waste-work: race, caste, and labour in the new global politics of disposability, led by Shubhra Gururani (associate professor, Department of Anthropology, LA&PS), received $23,503.

Monstrous Intimacies at 15, led by Tiana Reid (assistant professor, Department of English, LA&PS), received $24,055.

Colère et Espoir autour de la Palestine : Perspectives d'artistes et de chercheur.es en sciences sociales, co-led by Nadia Hasan (assistant professor, School of Gender, Sexuality & Women’s Studies, LA&PS) with partners from Université Laval and Université du Québec à Montréal, received $24,997.

Respite, Care, and Ethics for Cultural Workers: A Traveling Symposium, led by OCAD University and co-led by��Casey Mecija��(associate professor, Department of Communication & Media Studies), received $49,996.

De l'économie politique postcapitaliste à l'utopie — Rencontre entre recherche en sciences sociales et pratiques artistiques, led by Saint Paul University and co-led by��Audrey Laurin-Lamothe��(associate professor, Department of Social Science, LA&PS) and partners from Lund University, Université Laval, and Université du Québec en Outaouais, received $23,646.

Lusophone Studies Association Meeting, “Voices and Visions: Lusophone Communities in the Global Landscape,” led by the University of British Columbia and co-led by Robert Kenedy (associate professor, Department of Sociology, LA&PS), received $24,375.

��ó: Tewatia'tarò:rok Taetewatia'takéhnha', led by the University of Toronto and co-led by Jeremy Green (assistant professor, Department of Humanities, LA&PS), received $50,000.

Read the full story in YFile.

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Professor awarded funding for project on Black settlers in Canada

efulton — Tue, 13 Jan 2026 20:45:30 +0000

Desirée de Jesús, assistant professor in the Department of Communication & Media Studies, has been awarded funding for the digital media community-engaged project, From Archive to Imagination: Building Canada’s Future with Black Histories, through the Black Research Seed Fund.

This project partners with the arts and cultural organization the Black Arts Centre, along with Black memory workers, sound designers, filmmakers and youth, to co-create educational guides for use in community workshops in Ontario and British Columbia. These resources will focus on the radical imaginations of early Black settlers who envisioned lives in Canada while confronting racial violence and Indigenous displacement, and they will include digital media production exercises that encourage Black youth to reflect on their roles as stakeholders in the nation’s future. This initiative builds on research findings from the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council (SSHRC)-funded Mapping Black Girl Geographies and Belonging in Canada community-based project, co-led by Professors Kisha McPherson (Toronto Metropolitan University) and Crystal Webster (University of British Columbia).

de Jesús is a video essayist and moving images curator. Her research and teaching explore the intersections of race, gender, aesthetics and technology in narrative film and media through traditional, creative/curatorial and maker methodologies. Her research interests include communications, children and youth, Black cultural and feminist studies, videographic criticism, community-based research and decolonial approaches to cinema and media.

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Professors from LA&PS receive funding through the University’s Black Research Seed Fund

efulton — Thu, 21 Aug 2025 17:31:03 +0000

A total of nine researchers at 91��ɫ, including four from the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS), received over $223,000 in funding through the Black Research Seed Fund. The fund supports Black scholars focusing on Black experiences and on projects that challenge systemic barriers while redefining knowledge creation.

The four LA&PS recipients are:

Damilola Adebayo,��assistant professor, Department of History
Taming the Niger River: The Kainji Dam and Socioeconomic Development in Twentieth-Century West Africa

Desirée de Jesus, assistant professor, Department of Communication & Media Studies From Archive to Imagination: Building Canada’s Future with Black Histories

Ola Mohammed, assistant professor, Department of Humanities
From the Margins to the Major: The Insurgent Archive of Black Studies at 91��ɫ

Salewa Olawoye, associate professor, Department of Social Science
Money Demystified: An Inclusive Monetary Theory

Congratulations to the recipients on their success.

Read the full story in YFile.

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Researchers from the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies secure additional funding from SSHRC Insight Grants program

efulton — Mon, 11 Aug 2025 13:24:03 +0000

Canada’s Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) has awarded $5,786,741 in federal funding to 91��ɫ researchers as part of the Insight Grants program. The funding supports 34 projects and builds on an additional $1.7M in funding that 91��ɫ researchers recently received through SSHRC Insight Development Grants, supporting scholars in the social sciences and humanities. Half of the funded projects are led by researchers from the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS), who are listed below.

Kelly Bergstrom, Department of Communication & Media Studies
Project: Platforming Leisure: Navigating worker experiences of labour and leisure in the digital platform economy
Funding: $228,512

Marie-Helene Budworth, School of Human Resource Management
Project: Diversity at work: Beyond a monoracial framework
Funding: $85,155

Natalie Coulter, Department of Communication & Media Studies
Project: Understanding Our Digital Futures: KidTech, AdTech and Branded Content in the DigiVerse
Funding: $291,354

Benjamin Kelly, Department of History
Project: The Politics of Repression in Ancient Rome: Discourses and Practices
Funding: $82,358

Anja Krstic, School of Human Resource Management
Project: Increasing gender equality: An examination of why and how gender roles influence men's parental leave-taking decisions
Funding: $112,174

Geoffrey P.J. Lawrence, Department of Languages, Literatures and Linguistics
Project: Examining Generative Artificial Intelligence in Post-Secondary English for Academic Purpose (EAP) Programs
Funding: $89,678

Matthew A. Leisinger, Department of Philosophy
Project: Ralph Cudworth's Freewill Manuscripts
Funding: $77,009

Bernard V. Lightman, Department of Humanities
Project: The collected letters of John Tyndall (1820–1893), influential Victorian scientist: editing and publishing volumes 18 to 21
Funding: $88,785

Muyang Li, Department of Sociology
Project: Shaping the Future of AI: Artificial Intelligence Governance in Global Dynamics
Funding: $93,966

Marcel Martel, Department of History
Project: Un nouveau spiritueux: le cognac, la mondialisation et la tempérance au Canada et aux États-Unis, 1870–1933
Funding: $61,204

Antulio Rosales, Department of Social Science
Project: Crypto-bans versus crypto expansions: explaining variation in cryptocurrency mining prohibitions across global north and global south contexts
Funding: $279,986

Anoosheh Rostamkalaei, School of Administrative Studies
Project: Entrepreneurial outcomes and liability of poorness
Funding: $73,299

Fuminori Toyasaki, School of Administrative Studies
Project: Collaboration between Competitors in Product Innovation
Funding: $179,390

Antonella Valeo, Department of Languages, Literatures and Linguistics
Project: Context Matters: A Study of Corrective Feedback in Adult Language Teaching and Learning
Funding: $199,630

Alexandra E. Widmer, Department of Anthropology
Project: Disability Matters: Kinship Networks, Integration and the Social Consequences of Medical Diagnoses in Vanuatu
Funding: $121,317

David Weitzner, School of Administrative Studies
Project: Humanistic Stakeholder Theory and a Minimalist Ethics Litmus Test for Firm Purpose
Funding: $190,790

Jelena Zikic, School of Human Resource Management
Project: Are alternative careers sustainable? Towards health and well-being of immigrants across Canada
Funding: $201,095

Congratulations to all grant recipients and their team of researchers.

Read the full story in YFile.

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Researchers from the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies secure federal funding to pursue projects in the social sciences and humanities

efulton — Fri, 18 Jul 2025 19:21:29 +0000

Canada’s Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) has awarded $1.7 million in federal funding to 91��ɫ researchers as part of the Insight Development Grants program. The program will provide funding for projects lasting up to two years, supporting a broad range of topics and disciplines as researchers investigate key societal challenges. A number of applicants from the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies received funding for their projects, including:

Gemechu Abeshu, Department of Sociology
Project: Exploring the Lived Experiences of Refugees Resettled in Canada through the Economic Mobility Pathways Pilot 
��ܲԻ徱�Բ�: $62,498 

Kelly Bergstrom, Department of Communication & Media Studies
Project: Context Collisions and Critical Events: Investigating the True Crime Convention Circuit 
Funding:  $73,181 

Sheetala Bhat, Department of English
Project: Long-distance Gods: Hindu Nationalism and the South Asian Diasporas in Canada 
Funding: $65,433 

Sarah Blake, Department of Humanities
Project: Technologies of Beauty and Enslaved Practitioners in the Graeco-Roman World 
��ܲԻ徱�Բ�: $67,215

Zeyad El Nabolsy, Department of Philosophy
Project: Theories of Education in Nineteenth-Century African Philosophy 
��ܲԻ徱�Բ�: $46,414 

Denielle Elliott, Department of Anthropology, Department of Social Science
Project: Cinematic Minds: Exploring brain injuries through science fiction horror film 
��ܲԻ徱�Բ�: $74,995

Ida Ferrara, Department of Economics
Project: Advancing Gender Diversity in Leadership Positions: An Integrated Multidisciplinary Approach 
Funding: $60,720

Benjamin Kelly, Department of History
Project: Space and Power in the Flavian Palace: 3D Digital Visualisations as Tools for Historical Research 
��ܲԻ徱�Բ�: $69,030 

Sunwoo Lee, School of Administrative Studies
Project: Retirement Planning for Low-Income Households in Canada 
Funding: $48,547 

Sudeshna Maitra, Department of Economics 
Project: More Skilled Jobs or Subsidized Education? A Micro-to-Macro Approach to Evaluate Anti-Poverty Policy in India 
��ܲԻ徱�Բ�: $71,508 

Margaret O’Brien, Department of Philosophy
Project: Disagreement, Standing, and Politics 
Funding: $43,751

Jacqueline Petropoulos, Department of English 
Project: Reanimating the Moderns: Canadian Adaptations of World Drama 
Funding: $65,820

Leila Pourtavaf, Department of History
Project: From Gulistan to Lalezar: The Urban Life and Afterlife of Slavery in Tehran 
��ܲԻ徱�Բ�: $57,461 &�Բ��;

Nicholas Taylor, Department of Communication & Media Studies 
Project: Building Good Relations 
Funding: $56,215

Natasha Tusikov, Department of Social Science
Project: Governance Challenges of Digital-Contraceptive Apps 
Funding: $74,918

Jun Zhao, Department of Economics 
Project: The Evaluation of Minority Preference Programs in Canada 
Funding: $53,823 

Jelena Zikic, School of Human Resource Management 
Project: How remote workers of an extreme type cope with the ‘connectivity paradox’? From nomadic to lonely work lives 
Funding: $63,253

Congratulations to all LA&PS applicants and their team of researchers.

Read the full story in YFile.

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Department of Communication & Media Studies professors publish tenth edition of Media and Communication in Canada

efulton — Wed, 28 May 2025 20:41:33 +0000

Professors Natalie Coulter, Robert Heynen and David Skinner, along with the late Mike Gasher, have published the tenth edition of their book, Media and Communication in Canada: Networks, Culture, Technology, Audience, considered the gold standard textbook in the field.

The textbook examines both traditional and new media, deconstructing new media trends and issues. It is ideal for first-year courses like Introduction to Communication or Introduction to Media Studies at universities and colleges. It was published by Oxford University Press.

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Department of Communication & Media Studies professor Shirley Roburn discusses her research with the Wildlife Conservation Society of Canada

efulton — Wed, 28 May 2025 20:02:34 +0000

Shirley Roburn, assistant professor in the Department of Communication & Media Studies (CMDS), is featured in an interview with the Wildlife Conservation Society of Canada. In the interview, Roburn discusses her work during the Weston Family Boreal Research Fellowship, the importance of grassroots storytelling for keeping environmental movements alive and her current research within CMDS.

Shirley Roburn holds her PhD in Communication Studies from Concordia University. Her research interests include environmental advocacy, Indigenous storytelling, grassroots storytelling, media studies, environmental justice, human rights and food security.

Read the full interview on the .

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