Jody D. Berland

Media & Culture, Technology in Practice

DepartmentHumanities (York)

Areas of Expertise cultural theory; Canadian communication theory; cultural studies of nature; science, technology and the environment; music and the media; space and place

https://profiles.laps.yorku.ca/profiles/jberland/

Jody Berland is an award winning scholar whose research and teaching provide interdisciplinary explorations of how nature, technology and representation interact in visual and sonic culture. Her forthcoming book, 'Virtual Menageries in Network Cultures' addresses the widespread appearance of animals in contemporary visual and digital culture. She is Editor Emerita of TOPIA: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies and has supervised many theses and dissertations. She is Visiting Professor, Centre for Human Animal Studies, Edge Hill University, UK, and Research Fellow, Media and Communications, Goldsmiths, University of London.

Recent Publications:

Berland, J. (2017a). Assembling the (Non)Human: The Animal as Medium. Imaginations (Edmonton, Alberta), 8(3), 139–152.

Berland, J. (2017b). Attending the Giraffe. Humanimalia, 9(1), 22–45.

Berland, J. (2017c). TAB: Take Academia Back. Canadian Journal of Communication, 42(1), 163.

Berland, J. (2019a). McLuhan and Posthumanism: Extending the Techno-Animal Embrace. Canadian Journal of Communication, 44(4), 567–584.

Berland, J. (2019b). Virtual menageries: Animals as mediators in network cultures. The MIT Press.

Sample of supervised ComCult projects:

2018 - Michael Lisinski; Project-Paper: Lyrebirds: A Concept Album Exploring Catachresis In Popular Music Styles

2014 - Sabine Lebel; Dissertation: The Life Cycle of the Computer: a Study in the Materialities of Risk

2013 - Kelly Bronson; Dissertation: Framing the debate : how scientism in the language of the law binds public-biotechnology engagement)

2009 - Robinder Sehdev; Dissertation: Unsettling the settler at Niagara Falls: Reading colonial culture through the Maid of the Mist

2009 - Robin C. McCullough; Thesis: Notes from the field: Translation, inscription and the materiality of communication in silvicultural practice

2009 - Clare O'Connor; Thesis: Pedagogies of space: The contestation of Vari Hall

2009 - Robin C. McCullough; Thesis: Notes from the field: Translation, inscription and the materiality of communication in silvicultural practice

2007 - Melissa West; Dissertation: Marketing Madonna: Celebrity agency across the cultural industry

2007 - Naomi Fraser; Dissertation: ‘We are all connected’: Internationalism, communication and Canadian identity

2007 - Melissa West; Dissertation: Marketing Madonna: Celebrity agency across the cultural industry

2007 - Abigail Godfrey (co-supervision); Project-Paper: Facing Canada: Portraits in Toronto

2006 - Sarah Sharma; Dissertation: Temporality and difference from the agora to the airport: Towards a theory of power-chronography

2005 - Matthew Flisfeder; Thesis: Globalization, postmodernism and public space: A visual study of Yonge-Dundas Square

2003 - Sara Chan (co-supervision); Thesis: Imaginary soundscapes : electronic music culture and the aesthetics of the virtual