Research Areas: Generative AI, Communication, Organizational Culture, Public Relations

Supervisor: Dr. Alex Sévigny

Research Summary: My research explores how Generative AI tools are transforming entry-level functions in the communications industry. While existing research focuses on AI’s broader impact, there is little understanding of how these tools are integrated into the daily work of entry-level professionals. This study will uncover how interns and early-career practitioners are using AI tools, and how these tools are reshaping the skills and knowledge (KSAs) required for success in the fields.

Research Areas: Popular Music, Feminist Theory, Cultural Production, New Media

Supervisor: Dr. Christina Baade

Dissertation Title: “This Girl is for Hire”: Jobbing Women Musicians in the Canadian Metropolitan Music Scene

Research Summary: Jobbers are skilled, knowledgeable and versatile musicians who make a living playing music. I myself have been a jobber on the Toronto/GTA music scene for well over a decade. In this project, I will examine the lived experiences of female jobbers working in large Canadian cities, with special attention to the aesthetic labour of vocalists, the gendered stratification of jam culture, and the unique nature of mothering in this precarious industry. The Covid-19 pandemic had a devastating impact on the Canadian music scene that continues to linger in 2024. Meanwhile new technologies, particularly smartphones and social media, offer new affordances—and challenges—to musicians. In this research project, I will examine how these developments are affecting women jobbers, with attention to their race, ability, education, and whether or not they are caregivers.

Research Areas: Critical Data Studies, Data Justice, Platform Studies, Digital Humanities, Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence, Feminist and Queer Theory, Latinx Diaspora Studies

Supervisor: Dr. Andrea Zeffiro

Research Summary: Alexis-Carlota Cochrane (she/they) is a PhD Candidate (ABD) and Sessional Instructor in the Department of Communication Studies and Media Arts at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario where she also pursues a Graduate Diploma in Gender and Social Justice.

Her dissertation project investigates how women of colour experience disproportionate harm in digital spaces and examines the queer, resistive strategies they use to reclaim agency, foster and sustain digital counterpublics, and disrupt white-centric, heteropatriarchal technocultures.

Some of Alexis-Carlota’s research can be found in Rivista di Digital Politics, Interdisciplinary Digital Engagement in Arts & Humanities (IDEAH), and in an edited collection entitled “You’re Muted”: Performance, Precarity, and the Logic of Zoom, published by Bloomsbury.

Research Areas: Performance Studies, Gender and Sexuality, Race and Gender

Supervisor: Dr. Paula Gardner

Dissertation Title: Developing a toolkit for Iranian Feminist Performing Art Activists: Strategies for performances in North America

Research Summary: In my PhD project, I will design, develop, and test a toolkit tailored for feminist Iranian performing art activists in North America. The purpose of this toolkit is to facilitate the creation of performances aimed at achieving three primary objectives: shifting public opinion regarding the Islamic regime in Iran, supporting the Woman. Life. Freedom uprising and Iranian womxn ’s rights, and recruiting new feminist activists. By bridging academic knowledge with proven arts activist strategies, the dissertation challenges traditional boundaries and encourages collaboration between academia and grassroots movements. Additionally, it can benefit performance artists supporting feminist movements against religious fundamentalism and patriarchal authoritarianism.

Research Areas: Prize Studies, Celebrity Studies, Popular Culture Studies, Representation

Supervisor(s): Dr. Selina Mudavanhu, Dr. Christine Quail, Dr. Christina Baade

Research Summary: Using critical discourse analysis and theories of cultural prizes and representation, my research is looking at the Oscars Best Picture Competition’s Standards for Representation and Diversity in order to understand how discourses of film success and discourses of representation intersect.

Research Areas: feminist technology studies

Supervisor: Dr. Paula Gardner

Research Areas: solarpunk, utopianism, posthumanism, environmental humanities, migration and migrant justice

Supervisor: Dr. Derek Woods

Research Areas: feminist media studies; networked parenting; social media research ethics

Supervisor: Dr. Faiza Hirji

Dissertation Title: Parts & Labours – North American Online Mothering in COVID-19: Virtual Lactation, Misinformation, Mad Moms & Momfluencers

Research Summary: In 2015, the phrase “the momification of the Internet” (Dewey) pointed to the widespread use of
online social networking sites (SNSs) by parents engaged in acts of mothering, which I understand as
“gender-free work” that “does not require a particular sexual commitment” (Ruddick xii). In 2025, I
assert that “momification” has only amplified and signals to pervasive online trends such as antivaccination
misinformation, declines in parental mental health, and the increasing complexities of both
paid and unpaid labour. My doctoral project investigates online mothering in North America under the
conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermaths, which have led to a marked retrograde in employment gains for
working mothers especially (Roberts et al.; Taub), and impacted their mental health and access to
various supports (Botz and Cohen). Notably, parents’ experiences vary widely based on individual
intersectional (Crenshaw) subjectivities (i.e., race, class, gender, ability, neurodiversity).

Research Areas: Queer Theory, Media Studies, Fans and Fandoms, Pop Culture Studies, Identity and Discourse

Supervisor: Dr. Christina Baade

Dissertation Title: Who’s Listening Now? Music and Fandom as Resistance for Queer and Trans Youth

Research Summary: Amanda is a PhD student in McMaster’s New Media, Communications, and Cultural Studies program, currently in her second year. Amanda holds an M.A in Communications and New Media from McMaster University and is currently pursuing a diploma in Gender and Social Justice alongside her PhD.

Amanda’s research focuses on music and pop culture as conduits for young queer and trans people to negotiate their identities, build community connections, and develop their media tastes and interests. Her dissertation considers how music listening groups and online music fandoms act as opportunities for LGBTQ+ teens to resist and cope with the rapid and troubling rise in anti-LGBTQ+ sentiments in politics and society over the past 5 years. Amanda hopes to mobilize her research beyond academia and provide young queer and trans individuals with a platform upon which their narratives might be shared and amplified.

Research Areas: Television Analysis, Critical Theory, Media Dependence Theory, Phenomenology, 2000s, 2010s

Supervisor: Dr. Selina Mudavanhu

Research Areas: Queer Art History, Contemporary Art, Archival Practice, Queer Theory, Queer Activism, Cultural Studies and Production

Supervisor: Dr. Stephanie Springgay

Dissertation Title: “The Affective Resonance of Archival Objects: Queer Visual Art & Culture in Canada after* AIDS”

Research Summary: My research aims to identify and articulate intergenerational epistemes and exchanges through histories of collective queer political desires expressed through visual materials. My proposed doctoral research-creation project “The Affective Resonance of Archival Objects: Queer Visual Art & Culture in Canada after* AIDS” will analyze how contemporary queer Canadian visual artists (after 1980) cite histories of queer and trans liberation and HIV/AIDS activism in their work. In my research I seek to trouble the queer archive by highlighting contemporary artists whose work, voices, and experiences fill gaps of representation within the archive, queer histories, and queer visual culture for both past and future generations.

Research Areas: popular music, mediated feminism, queer studies, bi+ representation

Supervisor: Dr. Christina Baade

Dissertation Title: Trials and Triumphs of ‘Riding the (Bi)cycle’: Performance of Women’s Bisexual Identity in Music and Online Affective Archives

Research Summary: Sam is a researcher exploring the intersections of popular music studies, digital media, and queer studies, with a focus on bi+ representation. Her dissertation investigates how music and online platforms are used to challenge stereotypes, navigate identity, and foster community for bi+ individuals. Her work highlights the influential role of music cultures in shaping visibility and representation in contemporary society.

Research Interests: Pop culture, Celebrity culture, Social media, Marketing

Supervisor: Dr. Alex Sévigny

Research Areas: game studies, affect theory, adaptation studies

Supervisor: Dr. David Ogborn

Research Areas: feminist theory, cyber racism, media representation

Supervisor: Dr. Faiza Hirji

Research Areas: Visual Culture, Activism, Queer Theory, Feminism

Supervisor(s): Prof. Liss Plat, Dr. Christine Quail, Dr. Andrea Zeffiro

Supervisor: Dr. Lyndsey Beutin

Research Areas: critical disability studies; digital storytelling; cultural memory studies; archives; community-engaged research

Supervisor(s): Prof. Liss Platt & Dr. Sarah Brophy

Dissertation Title: Storying Disability: Digital Community Archives as Public Memorial at New York’s Craig Colony for Epileptics

Research Summary: Katie Waring (she/her) is a multimedia writer and doctoral candidate in the Communication, New Media, and Cultural Studies program. Her research looks at the potential for community-engaged digital storytelling in highlighting suppressed histories–in particular, of disabled communities. Currently, Katie is working to construct a digital community archive which documents the history of New York’s Craig Colony for Epileptics. She holds an MFA in nonfiction writing from the University of Pittsburgh and her creative work has been published in literary journals such as The Normal School and American Literary Review, among others.

Research Areas: Digital Media Studies, Game Studies, Gender Studies, Social Media

Supervisor: Dr. Faiza Hirji

Research Areas: Technology Policy, Intellectual Property, Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence

Supervisor: Dr. Sara Bannerman

Dissertation Title: Building Blocks: Art Creation and Ownership on the Blockchain

Research Summary: The overarching research question in this dissertation is: What does blockchain do for artists, and does it benefit them and their practices? The specific aim is to understand how, why, and what effects technologies have on the artistic process and cultural production, particularly in the visual arts. The focus will be on Non-Fungible Token (NFT) artists operating on the OpenSea and SuperRare platforms. The study will examine how these technologies provide new tools for creation, offer alternative forms of trade and earning potential outside traditional art markets, and allow artists to play with new media.