Jason Nolan appointed John C. Eaton Chair in Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Jason Nolan was named the John C. Eaton Chair in Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Faculty of Community Services (FCS) in August 2022. 

The position, housed in the School of Child and Youth Care, was created to provide social innovation and entrepreneurship opportunities for students. It was introduced in 2013 and was made possible in part through a $1-million gift from Canadian businessman and philanthropist John Eaton and his wife, Sally Horsfall Eaton.

Nolan is autistic, and this informs his teaching, leadership, and research practices that centre on understanding the goals, interests, and needs of children and marginalized communities, as well as his work to co-design the tools required to overcome obstacles of systemic marginalization.

Nolan joined the School of Early Childhood Studies (ECS) in 2005, after 20 years of itinerant researching and teaching that included stints as Senior Fellow at the McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology, and Scholar in Residence at the Knowledge Media Design Institute (KMDI), University of Toronto, where he worked on developing KMDI’s graduate program. His dissertation focused on the importance of play in shifting professional practice from real into virtual reality environments. 

Nolan is presently associate director responsible for ECS’s Lab Schools. While at ECS, he developed courses focusing on children’s science, technology and play experiences, before moving into creative arts practice. His teaching compliments his research relating to co-designing adaptations for disabled children; which led to the development of the NGO Diseñando Para El Futuro in Bolivia with a grant from Grand Challenges Canada’s Stars in Global Health program. Since 2008, Nolan has directed the Experiential Design and Gaming Environments Lab, and from 2015 has co-directed the Responsive Ecologies Lab, both funded by the Canadian Foundation for Innovation, Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation and Toronto Metropolitan University. 

Nolan’s present research is based in sound and learning, and learning with materials informed by a Dis/Crit lens, situated in the “Canadian Accessible Musical Instrument Network (external link) ” funded by a SSHRC PDG. This summer, his social innovation and entrepreneurship project is a Kickstarter to republish Allen Strange’s “Electronic Music: Systems, Techniques and Controls (external link) ”, out of print for decades, raising over $266k in pledges. Getting this book back in print is of benefit to the electronic music industry and composers around the world, and is raising tens of thousands of dollars that will go to support equitable and inclusive access to community musicking for children at the Community Music Schools of Toronto (external link)  and the Willie Mae Rock Camp (external link)  in Brooklyn, NY.