Infoscape Research Team

Dr. Greg Elmer, (gelmer at bell.blackberry.net) Infoscape Director & Bell Globemedia Research Chair, Ryerson University

Greg teaches in the graduate program in Communication and Culture at York University and Ryerson University, in addition to the graduate program in media production at Ryerson. He has lectured, published, and consulted widely on new media and politics, information and communication technologies, computer networks, and media globalization. Greg provides analysis and commentary for the media on the role of new media in Canadian and American politics. He is a regular columnist for The Hill Times in Ottawa.

Greg's most recent publications have appeared in the scholarly journals First Monday, New Media & Society, Screen, Convergence, and Scan. He is also author, co-author, editor and co-editor of Profiling Machines: Mapping the Personal Information Economy (2005: MIT Press), Critical Perspectives on the Internet (2002: Rowman and Littlefield), Contracting Out Hollywood: Runaway Productions and Foreign Location Shooting (2005: Rowman and Littlefield), and the forthcoming books Prempting Dissent (Arbeiter Ring Press), and Locating Migrating Media (Lexington Press). He is currently working on a book entitled Dissagregating the Net (Rowman & Littlefield). Greg is on the editorial board of New Media & Society, The Information Society, Space and Culture, Topia: A Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies, and the American Communication Journal. Greg was previously visiting Faculty Fellow at the Virtual Knowledge Studio (Amsterdam) and a Digital Cultural Institutions fellow at the Social Science Research Council in New York City.

Greg's homepage and blog can be found here.

Dr. Isabel Pedersen, Assistant Professor of Professional Communication

Isabel Pedersen is an Assistant Professor of Professional Communication in the Faculty of Communication and Design at Ryerson University. She is also affiliated with the Graduate Programme in Communication & Culture, a partnership of Ryerson University & York University.

Her research deals with the rhetoric and semiotics of emergent, reality-shifting media including wearable interfaces, mobile interfaces, and future nano-technological devices. Her recent publications appear in Small Tech: The Culture of Digital Tools (Eds. Byron Hawk, David Rieder, and Ollie Oviedo), International Journal of the Humanities, Semiotica, and Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies.

She has given papers on conceptual interface design at several conferences including the National Communication Association Convention, the Association for Computing Machinery Special Interest Group on documentation (SIGDOC) conference, the Association of Internet Researchers, the Computers & Writing Conference, and the Immersive Worlds Conference.

Dr. Ganaele Langlois (g2langlo at ryerson.ca), Associate Director and SSHRC Post-Doctoral Researcher

Ganaele is SSHRC postdoctoral fellow at the Infoscape Research Lab. She completed her Ph.D. in May 2008 in the Joint Programme in Communication and Culture at York/Ryerson Universities. Her dissertation is entitled "The Technocultural Dimensions of Meaning: Towards a Mixed Semiotics of the World Wide Web". Her research focuses on tracing how the language and cultural practices of the Web are shaped by technocultural assemblages. Her work is influenced by Deleuze and Guattari, software criticism, and Actor-network theory. 

Dr. Kenneth Werbin (kcwerbin at gmail.com), Associate Director and Ryerson Post-Doctoral Researcher

Kenneth joined the Infoscape Research Lab in March of 2008 thanks to Ryerson University's Office of Research Service's Postdoctoral Fellowship program. Having recently completed his PhD dissertation entitled "The list serves: the apparatuses of security and governmentality" at Concordia University in Montreal, Kenneth brings a critical perspective on the cultural aspects of communication technologies to the lab, particularly concerning questions of governance, democracy, freedom, surveillance, and social control. In addition to collaborating on existing lab research and initiating new projects and publishing opportunities, Kenneth is also currently transforming his dissertation into a book. Where his dissertation argues that 'the list' is not simply an innocuous tool of everyday life for administering the minutiae of mundane existence, but rather, operates as a security technology of contemporary governmentality in zones of higher risk like airports, his current research involves examining the operations of lists in more banal everyday milieus of circulation including social networking sites like facebook.com, myspace.com, and other networked assemblages of humans and machines. Kenneth's most recent publications have appeared in European edited anthologies including "In the Shade of the Commons" (Waag Society) <http://www.waag.org/project/shade> and "TECHNICITY" (Litteraria Pragensia). <http://litteraria.ff.cuni.cz/books/technicity.html> Kenneth also holds a BA in Film and Communications from McGill University, as well as an MA in Educational Technology from Concordia University, and was supported for his PhD studies through a FQRSC Doctoral Studies Fellowship (2003-2006). <http://www.fqrsc.gouv.qc.ca/>

Zach Devereaux (zdevereaux at gmail.com), Research Associate

Zach holds a BA in History from the University of Alberta, completed a year of graduate coursework in Communications Studies at the University of Amsterdam, and holds an MA in Political Science from the University of Alberta. Zach's MA thesis was entitled "New Media and the North Korean Nuclear Crisis." Currently Zach is a second year PhD candidate in the Joint Programme in Communication and Culture at Ryerson / York. Zach's research pursuits are based on new media research methodologies and online issue network mapping. Zach's recent research has explored health and adoption networks online, elections and party politics in the news and blogosphere, and the governance of nanotechnology and biotechnology via intellectual property law.

Peter Malachy Ryan, Research Associate

Peter is currently a Rogers Fellow and a doctoral candidate at Ryerson University in the Communication and Culture program. He is an instructor in the Department of Politics and Public Administration. Until moving to Toronto in the summer of 2003, Peter had worked for two years with the Faculty of Arts at the University of Alberta as a research coordinator for the Arts Resource Centre (ARC). His Master of Arts in English (Humanities Computing) and his Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy (minor in English) were both completed at the University of Alberta. His research interests and professional background include work in the areas of creative writing, electronic texts, instructional design, publishing, and 20th century Canadian literature. He is also active in student government and volunteerism.

A. Brady Curlew, Research Associate

Brady is a PhD candidate in Joint Graduate Programme in Communication and Culture at York and Ryerson Universities. He is currently using the methods of critical cultural studies and political economy to analyze user-generated content on the internet and the user modification of digital pop culture artifacts, with a focus on the "modding" of digital games. A subset of Brady's research explores how such modifications affect and are affected by both state and non-governmental media policy change. He is also a research assistant on York University's Canadian arts group content management & intellectual property licensing initiative known as Artmob.

Dr. Andres Zelman, Research Associate and Webivore Project Leader

Andrés Zelman is the Managing Director of Thinkamalinks, a new-media research think tank based in The Netherlands. He is the author of Mediated Communication and the Evolving Science System: Mapping the Network Architecture of Knowledge Production [Amsterdam: Rozenburg Press, 2002]. Andrés has previously held faculty positions at the Amsterdam School of Communications Research [ASCoR] and the department of Science & Technology Dynamics [WTD], both of the University of Amsterdam [The Netherlands]. He is currently a Research Associate with the Infoscape Research lab in Toronto, Canada and with the GovCom.Org Foundation in Amsterdam. His interests include the development of research oriented software tools for the analysis of communicative patterns.

Fenwick McKelvey (mckelveyf at gmail.com), Research Associate

Fenwick McKelvey is a first year Phd student (Fall '08) in the Communication and Culture program. His research focuses on new media political communication, digital research methods, and network neutrality. His MA thesis explored the code politics of social movements by studying The Pirate Bay and Drupal. He holds a BA with Honours in Multidisciplinary Studies focusing on Political Science, International Development Studies, and Spanish. From 2004 to 2005, Fenwick completed an internship with Human Rights Internet, working with a Women's rights organization in Rosario, Argentina. He has also created websites for various organizations, including Re-create, Leonard Preyra, MLA for Halifax Citadel, Students Coalition Against War, and Instituto de Genero, Derecho y Desarrollo.

Elley M. Prior, Research Associate

Elley M. Prior is a feminist scholar who is completing a Ph.D. in Communication and Culture at York University. Her research centres around identity, life writing practices, Internet culture and the politics of code. She holds an M.A. from Carleton University in Canadian Studies where she examined how Canadian women negotiate information and communication technologies. Her thesis, "“The Secret World of Women Bloggers"” explored what happens to issues of identity, activism and community when they are transposed via the Internet to online spaces that are produced both for and by women. Her undergraduate degree is in Psychology, specializing in Human-Computer Interaction. She also holds a certificate in Flash Development from Algonquin College (Ottawa) and a certificate in Web Usability from Human Factors International (Chicago). Prior to commencing her doctorial studies, she was employed as a User Interface Designer and a Senior Web Communications Specialist in the high tech sector. She has worked with a wide array of clients including Alcatel, Bridgewater Systems, Cognos, Corel, Kyberpass, Mitel, MDS Nordion, Newbridge and Pathlore.

Patricio Davila, Research Associate

Patricio is a designer, artist and researcher. His currently completing his graduate studies at York and Ryerson Universities in the Communications and Culture program. His research focusses on medium theory, locative and new media and research methodologies for designers. Patricio completed his Bachelor of Design at the Ontario College of Art & Design (OCAD) and is recipient of both Toronto and Ontario Arts Council grants, an Ontario Graduate Student Scholarship, and a Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada Masters Scholarship. Patricio is also currently a researcher at the Mobile Experience Lab and a sessional instructor at the OCAD. Previous posts include Research Coordinator for the Mobile Digital Commons Network and Associate Creative Director at ICE Inc.

Mark Brosens, Research Associate (bio soon)

David Smith

David Harris Smith, AOCAD, MFA, PhD (in progress): currently conducting research in collaborative virtual worlds for which he was awarded a research grant by the Social Sciences and Humanities Council of Canada.

Past Members

Roberta Buiani, Research Associate

Roberta works at the crossroad between science, technology and the arts. Some general areas of interest include the Real/Artificial/Off-line relations, tactical media, and the science wars. Her projects and writings explore (and question) assumed uses of technology, their significance as cultural artifacts and their hidden potentials. Her writing appeared on exhibition catalogues, art magazines (Parachute and Public) and academic journals (Fibreculture ). Her dissertation explores the shared cultural spaces and the legacy of computer and biological viruses. She is currently a PhD candidate in the Graduate Programme in Communication and Culture, York University. A detailed list of publications and projects can be found at www.yorku.ca/robb.

Sneha Patel, Research and Design Intern

Sneha is a post graduate student at National Institute of Design in India pursuing Information and Digital design. Her interest lies in creating user experiences and exploring different mediums and strategies for effective information dissemination. She will assist in the design and preparation of data interfaces and research reports for the research lab. She is now pursuing her diploma project at infoscape, which is the final stage of her education programme at NID.

Joanna Redden, Research Associate

Joanna is an M.A. graduate of the Ryerson/York joint program in Communication and Culture. Joanna is currently enrolled in the Media and Communication PhD at Goldsmith's College, London. She is looking into the limitations of poverty coverage, questioning the impact of this coverage, and considering opportunities to challenge conventional representations of poverty. Joanna holds a BA in journalism from Carleton University and an MA in history from Dalhousie University.

Yukari Seko, Research Associate

Yukari is in the PhD Communication and Culture program at York University. Having completed a BA in Sociology of Religion at Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo, she has been stretching her territory from Japan to Canada to be a "transbordered" scholar. Her academic curiosity centers on the ways in which people use the online-networked communication for expressing their socially-marginalized feeling. In particular, Yukari is extremely interested in online manifestations of self-destructive desires and their socio-psychological implications. Her Masters thesis analyzes how the suicidal people and self-injurers constitute their identities in the blogosphere.

Neil Thomson, Research Associate

Neil is a second year MA student in the Communications and Culture program at Ryerson, interested in exploring various facets of discourse surrounding Information and Communication Technologies and their implementation in the service of development in the world LDC's (least developed countries). Neil is currently working on a project which involves an interactive, online mapping of terrorist website hosting zones. It is expected that this will be the first step in the major - and final - project of my masters degree.

Rob King, Infoscape Research Associate and Programmer

Rob King is an MA candidate in the Graduate programme in Communication and Culture, York and Ryerson University. A graduate of the Image Arts program at Ryerson, he is producer of the Locus Experimental Social Interface on the Web, as well as the analysis and representation of mediated communications, in general.