Research Officer Chantal Lemire clemire2@uwo.ca 519-661-2111x85383 FIMS & Nursing Building Rm 4054
Assistant Dean Research Isola Ajiferuke iajiferu@uwo.ca 519-661-2111x81364 FIMS & Nursing Building Rm 4025
Rogers Chair
Current Chair holder: Associate Professor James Compton, July 1, 2023 - June 30, 2025
Topic: Communicating Solidarity in an Unstable World
Public life in liberal democracies has become hyper-polarized in recent years, with opinion research indicating that faith in mainstream liberal institutions, including government and journalism, has faltered, while bad-faith politicians and conspiracy theorists label news organizations purveyors of “fake news.” Associate Professor James Compton, the current Rogers Chair of Studies in Journalism and New Information Technology, will examine this dynamic through the lens of social solidarity. Sociological examinations of neoliberalism have concluded that the neoliberal project is in crisis and has become unstable, producing with it social fragmentation, fear, resentment and anxiety. Into this moment came the global COVID-19 pandemic, which exposed and amplified pre-existing social inequalities. Professor Compton takes an historical approach to social analysis, informed by the cultural materialism of Raymond Williams, and critical political economy, to examine the status of progressive solidarity, and how it might be strengthened. Four themes will be addressed over the course of the two-year Chairship.
2023-2025 Research Themes
Theme 1: Understanding inequality, and challenges to neoliberal hegemony
Theme 2: Building a progressive solidarity through investment in social reproduction
Theme 3: Journalism's contradictory role in social reproduction
Theme 4: The role of labour in building & communicating progressive solidarity
Communicating Solidarity in the Neoliberal University Challenges and Solutions
Wednesday, October 30, 2024 Featuring Peter McInnis, Evan Fox-Decent and Karuna Dsouza.
Description: A panel of local, regional and national labour leaders moderated by Professor James Compton.
Panelist Bios:
Peter McInnis is a member of the Department of History at St. Francis Xavier University. McInnis has been active in faculty unions for 25 years. He has served on the Executive Committee of the Canadian Association of University Teachers since 2014, including four years as Chair of the Academic Freedom & Tenure Committee. McInnis is in his third elected term as CAUT President.
Evan Fox-Decent is the President of the Association of McGill Professors of Law (AMPL). He was named Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in Cosmopolitan Law and Justice in October 2019 and teaches and publishes in legal theory, political theory, private law, public law, and international law.
Karuna Dsouza was deeply involved in the union for teaching assistants PSAC 610 at Western University from 2020 to 2023. Her focus was on leading the union to be an active force on campus and build solidarity across labour groups. She is currently a staffer at the Public Service Alliance of Canada in their London regional office.
Reporting in a house of mirrors
Wednesday, March 13, 2024 Featuring Justin Ling, investigative journalist and author.
Description: These days, it feels like we don't even know what we're arguing about anymore. Our society has been riven by political polarization, paranoid populism, even extremism, brought on by a deluge of misinformation, disinformation, and conspiracy theories. Our collective conversation has been warped, skewed, stretched, and shrunk beyond recognition, making it harder and harder to see what's right in front of our faces. Journalists have rushed around, trying to correct all the distortion — often to little avail. Our body politic has suffered as a result, with crises and critical policy questions being ignored in favour of ideological crusades and small grievances made to look massive. If we are ever to face the myriad of problems facing us, we will need to return to some kind of collective reality. To get there, journalists will need to take the lead.
Speaker Bio: Justin Ling is a freelance investigative journalist who covers misinformation, conspiracy theories, extremism, political polarization, and national security. He hosted the podcasts The Village, which investigated a series of disappearances from Toronto's Gay Village and the roots of homophobic violence in Toronto; and The Flamethrowers, which traces how right-wing radio radicalized America. His first book, Missing From the Village, was published in 2020; his second book, a polemic against riot policing, is due out eventually. His newsletter, Bug-eyed and Shameless, covers the frontlines of the information war.
Lies, damned lies and democracy!
Wednesday, October 18, 2023 Featuring Professor Emeritus Anton Allahar, Department of Sociology, Western University.
Abstract: My title borrows from a famous quote that is attributed to Mark Twain who in turn attributed it to Benjamin Disraeli, a former British PM. Apparently when Disraeli was shown to be low in the poll numbers, he asserted: “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics!” I modify this quote to read: “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and democracy!” For my contention is that much of what passes for democracy today is based on transparent lies that are sold to an unsuspecting public by politicians, multiple civic leaders, media enterprises, teachers and even professors. It speaks to the processes by which a largely credulous populace exhibits a cultural willingness to accept myth and make-believe as ‘truth.’ In other words, the populace is so steeped in ideological distraction, so deceived that they are unable and even unwilling to see the ‘truth.’ I mean no disrespect to anyone, but that make-believe is rooted in the public’s widespread embrace of religion and the simultaneous rejection of scientific knowledge and fact. In the process ideologies of God, ‘race,’ gender, ‘tribe’ and nation are elevated and overall social solidarity is actively undermined. Finally, my argument directs attention to the phenomenon of Trumpism as a point of empirical reference.
Speaker Bio: Anton Allahar holds a PhD in Political & Economic Sociology from the University of Toronto and is a Full Professor of Sociology (emeritus) at Western University. His principal areas of interest are ethnic and racial relations, education, globalization, nationalism & democracy. Geographically his foci are the Caribbean and Latin America. Professor Allahar has written 8 books and edited 4 others, has published over 100 refereed journal articles and book chapters, and has delivered over 130 papers at national and international conferences. Anton has won 3 gold medals for academic achievements and 7 major awards for excellence in university teaching, including the prestigious Canadian National 3M Award, Western’s Edward Pleva Award and the OCUFA Award. Professor Allahar also holds 2 honorary professorships from the University of Havana in Cuba and the University of Oriente also in Cuba. In addition, he has been a visiting professor in Cuba, Russia, China, Fiji, Jamaica and Barbados. Finally, Professor Allahar was the recipient of the first ever Lifetime Achievement Award from the Caribbean Studies Association.
James Compton is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Information and Media Studies at Western University, where he studies the political economy of communication and culture. Professor Compton has previously served as the President of the University of Western Ontario Faculty Association (UWOFA), and President of the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT). He holds current membership in the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR), and the Union for Democratic Communications (UDC).
Anabel Quan-Haase, Professor, Faculty of Information and Media Studies and the Faculty of Social Science, The University of Western Ontario, July 1, 2021 - June 30, 2023.
Matt Stahl, Associate Professor, Faculty of Information and Media Studies, The University of Western Ontario, July 1, 2019 - June 30, 2021.
Sharon Sliwinski, Associate Professor, Faculty of Information and Media Studies, The University of Western Ontario, July 1, 2017-June 30, 2019.
Nick Dyer-Witheford, Associate Professor, Faculty of Information and Media Studies, The University of Western Ontario, July 1, 2015-June 30, 2017.
Grant Campbell, Associate Professor, Faculty of Information and Media Studies, The University of Western Ontario, July 1, 2013-June 30, 2015.
Alison Hearn, Associate Professor, Faculty of Information and Media Studies, The University of Western Ontario, July 1, 2011-June 30, 2013.
Daniel Robinson, Associate Professor, Faculty of Information and Media Studies, The University of Western Ontario, July 1, 2010-June 30, 2011.
Jonathan Burston, Associate Professor, Faculty of Information and Media Studies, The University of Western Ontario, July 1, 2009-June 30, 2010.
Edward Comor, Associate Professor, Faculty of Information and Media Studies, The University of Western Ontario, July 1, 2007-June 30, 2009.
Sasha Torres, Associate Professor, Faculty of Information and Media Studies, The University of Western Ontario, July 1, 2005-June 30, 2007.
David Spencer, Professor, Faculty of Information and Media Studies, The University of Western Ontario, July 1, 2003-June 30, 2005.
Anantha Babbili, visiting professor from Texas Christian University, Forth Worth TX, September 1, 2000-April 30, 2001.
John Downing, visiting professor from The University of Texas at Austin, Austin TX, May 1, 2000-August 31, 2000.
John Lent, visiting professor from Temple University, Philadelphia PA, January 1, 2000-April 30, 2000.
The Rogers Chair of Studies in Journalism and New Information Technology reflects a commitment to interdisciplinary studies in media and information technology, with a base in the Faculty of Information and Media Studies. Support for the Chair is provided by an endowment from Rogers Communications Inc., announced in the summer of 1994, and from a long-standing commitment by the Office of the Secretary of State, Government of Canada. The first appointment to the Rogers Chair occurred in January 2000. Exciting new research and teaching possibilities have been created for the University, the Faculty, and its students.
Each term, a public panel, sponsored by the Rogers Chair of Studies in Journalism and New Information Technology, is organized featuring faculty from the three disciplines that make up FIMS: Journalism, Media Studies and Library & Information Science.
The goal of these panels is to encourage faculty and students to discuss how they are thinking about a topic of mutual concern; more specifically, how their professional backgrounds and personal biographies are shaping their views and thoughts.
Theme 1: Understanding inequality, and challenges to neoliberal hegemony
