Research

Media, Information and Surveillance

This cluster develops sociologies of the digital including critical studies of the latest media, data, technologies, systems and networks. AI, social media, infrastructure, visual media, ‘smart’ technologies and digital data traces are all research topics in this group.

The area draws on and develops related research in feminist, science-and-technology studies and cultural studies.

In the past three decades, participants have achieved prominence for their pioneering and award winning work on the historical sociology of communications in Canada, the critique of the 'information society', the rapid rise of digital surveillance, the dynamics of visual communications, and the emergence and implications of AI.

Insights from disciplinary areas such as cultural geography, philosophy and history are vital to the cluster.

Media, Information and Surveillance Faculty Experts

Currently Funded Projects

Necro-extractivism: Algorithmic warfare, "kill clouds," and the racial political economy of security imperialism
Norma Möllers (PI). SSHRC Insight Grant, 2026-2031. $348,787

Post-Pandemic Temporalities: narratives, contexts, and experiences of mediated disruption, synchronization, and expectation beyond COVID-19
Martin Hand (PI). SSHRC Insight Grant, 2023-2027. $82,640

Infrastructuring the state: Materiality, morality, sovereignty
Norma Möllers (PI). SSHRC Insight Grant, 2019-2023. $89,473.

Big Data Surveillance
David Lyon (PI). SSHRC Partnership Grant, 2015-2022. $2,500,000

Cybersecurity and the making of 'digital territory'
Norma Möllers (PI). SSHRC Insight Development Grant, 2017-2019. $57,391

iTimes? Understanding the temporal dynamics of everyday life in the digital age
Martin Hand (PI). SSHRC Insight Grant, 2015-2019. $93,279

Smarter Cities? Big Data, Ubiquitous Surveillance and Urban Management in Canada, the USA, and the UK
David Murakami-Wood (PI). SSHRC Insight Grant, 2013-2018. $296,980

Persistent Traces and Potential Memories: emerging technologies, conventions and practices of memory-making in the digital era
Martin Hand (PI). SSHRC Standard Grant, 2011-2015. $57,946

Major Collaborative Research Initiative: “The New Transparency: Surveillance as Social Sorting”, 7-year collaborative research project
David Lyon (Director). SSHRC MCRI, 2008-2015. $2,500,000

Privacy implications of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles in Canada
David Lyon (Coordinator), David Murakami-Wood (Co-Investigator). Office of the Federal Privacy Commissioner, 2013-2014. $50,000

Organizational and Individual Behaviour and Personal Information Protection in the Age of Social Media
David Lyon (Overseas Partner). Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, 2012-2015. $65,000

Surveillance and Public Safety in Tokyo
David Murakami-Wood (PI). Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, 2013-2014. $40,000

National Security and Personal Information
David Lyon (PI), David Murakami-Wood (Co-investigator). Office of the Federal Privacy Commissioner, 2010-2011. $50,000

Cooperation on Science and Technology (COST) Action (2009-13), Living in Surveillance Societies.
David Murakami-Wood (Co-investigator/Associate). European Science Foundation, 2009-2013. $4,000,000

Analogue to Digital: objects, processes and practices of digital imaging and photography
Martin Hand (PI). SSHRC Standard Research Grant, 2006-2010. $48,344

Criminology and Law

Scholars in this cluster explore a wide range of questions regarding the nature of crime, law and criminal justice. More specifically, faculty in this research cluster examine youth in conflict with the law, crime and marginalisation, criminal victimization, gender and crime, juvenile justice, policing, drug markets, situational crime prevention, program evaluation, courts and sentencing, bail and pretrial detention, punishment and social control, and the professions of law.

Researchers in criminology and law contribute to sociological theories of crime, victimization and social control and employ a vast range of methodologies in their research projects.

Criminology and Law Faculty Experts

Currently Funded Projects

Intersecting Institutions of Criminal Justice and Injustice
Nicole Myers (Co-applicant). SSHRC Partnership Grant, 2022-2029. $2.5 million

“Jail not bail”?: Legal rights, risk and public safety
Nicole Myers (PI). SSHRC Insight Grant, 2025-2029. $176,731

Developing Partnerships to Investigate and Address the Process and Outcomes of Criminalization and Incarceration in Canada
Nicole Myers (co-applicant). SSHRC Partnership Development Grant, 2024-2027. $199,589

Paralegals and Access to Justice: Regulation, Job Rewards, and Legal Services during COVID-19 Pandemic
Fiona Kay (PI). SSHRC Insight Grant, 2021-2026. $172,760

Exploring Officer Patrol Behaviors Using Automated Vehicle Locator and Body-Worn Camera Data in Kansas City, Missouri
Victoria Sytsma (Co-PI). U.S. National Institute of Justice, 2023-2024. $862,804 USD

An investigation of the Toronto Police Service body-worn camera program
Victoria Sytsma (PI). SSHRC Partnership Exchange Grant, 2023-2024. $23,422

Risky Decisions: Professional Judgement, Public Safety and the Bail Decision
Nicole Myers (PI). SSHRC Insight Grant, awarded 2021-2025. $103,284

COVID-19 and Policing in Ontario: Preparing for Future Pandemics
Alana Saulnier (PI); Victoria Sytsma (Collaborator). Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Individual Partnership Development Grant, 2021-2024. $132,190

Trauma at the Root: Exploring Paths to Healing with Formerly Incarcerated Men
Nicole Myers (Co-PI). Health Canada awarded, 2018-2023. $558,180

Pre-trial Detention and the Right to Reasonable Bail
Nicole Myers (Co-PI). Canadian Bar Association Law for the Future Fund, 2021-2022. $29,550

Employment Transitions among Professionals at Late Career Stage: Bridging to Retirement, Job Innovation, and Volunteerism
Fiona Kay (PI). SSHRC Insight Grant, 2016-2021. $168,079

Virtual Bail Courts: Balancing Risks to Public Safety with Risks to Public Health
Nicole Myers (PI). ��ϳԹ��Դ Rapid Response SARS CoV-2/COVID, 19 May 2020, 5 months. $10,870

Evaluation of the Guelph Police Service's body-worn cameras pilot project
Alana Saulnier (PI). Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council: Partnership Engage Grant, 2020. $25,000

Identifying Situational Determinants of Police Use of Force: A Systemic Social Observation of Body Camera Footage in Newark, NJ
Victoria Sytsma (Co-PI). The Charles Koch Foundation, Criminal Justice and Policing Reform Program, 2019-2020. $110,346.69 USD

Street Youth, Criminogenic Social Schemas, and Crime
Stephen Baron (PI). SSHRC Insight Grant, 2017-2020. $137,471

Racial Diversity in Corporate Law Firms: A Longitudinal Study of Organizational Practices Shaping Hiring, Retention, and Promotions
Fiona Kay (PI). SSHRC Insight Grant, 2013-16. $93,399

Law Firm Employment Practices and the Representation of Minority Associates and Partners
Fiona Kay (Co-Investigator). Law School Admission Council, 2010-2013. $99,556

Street Youth, Differential Coercion, and Chronic Offending
Stephen Baron (PI). SSHRC, 2008-2013. $79,137

Gendered Career Trajectories: A Longitudinal Study of Women and Men Lawyers’ Law Practices and Pro Bono Service Commitments
Fiona Kay (PI). SSHRC Standard Research Grant, 2009-2012. $102,576

Career Pathways in Law: A Study of Gender and Job Transitions
Fiona Kay (PI). Law School Admission Council, 2009-2011. $72,000

Power, Inequalities and Social Justice

This cluster encompasses research in global inequalities, theories of power, capitalism and social theory, social movements and resistance, disability, race and racialization, anti-racism, the cultural and economic dimensions of globalization, post-colonialism and de-colonization, the lived experience of inequalities and social justice movements.

Power, Inequalities and Social Justice Faculty Experts

Currently Funded Projects

Intersectionality, Inequality, and Resettlement: Comparing Queer, Trans, and Nonbinary Muslim Refugee Experiences in two Canadian Cities
Golshan Golriz (PI). SSHRC Insight Development Grant, Award Budget 2025-2027. $56,841

Cancel Culture, Marginalization, and Activism: A Critical Examination
Golshan Golriz (PI). SSHRC Institutional Grant, Award Budget 2025-2026. $5,000

Schools, Sex and Muslim Belonging
Fauzia Husain (PI). SSHRC Insight Development Grant, Award Budget 2024-2027. $69,535

Digitally Divided: Representation, agency, and exclusion
Thomas Abrams (PI), SSHRC Insight Development Grant, 2024-2026. $62,301

Articulating freedom: The politics of independent living in time, space, and translation
Thomas Abrams (PI), SSHRC Institutional Grant, 2024-2025. $6,848.58

Redefining the Social Contract: Rebalancing Formal and Natural Support for People with Disabilities and their Families
Thomas Abrams (Co-applicant). SSHRC Partnership Grant, Awarded Budget, 2021-2024. $195,672

Reframing childhood disability: Bridging political and disciplinary boundaries to improve disabled children's lives
Thomas Abrams (Co-applicant). SSHRC Insight Grant, Awarded Budget, 2020-2022. $53,106

Transition of Youth with Disabilities: Experiences, Needs, Current Practices and the Way Forward in Ethiopia
Thomas Abrams (CO-PI). University of Gondar/��ϳԹ��Դ Mastercard Scholars program, 2020-2022. $60,000 USD

Roma in Canada: Transnational Peoples, Transnational Practices
Cynthia Levine-Rasky (Collaborator), SSHRC IDG, 2016-18. $55,000

An Ethnography of the Toronto Roma Community
Cynthia Levine-Rasky (PI), Senate Advisory Research Committee, 2012-14. $5,600

Web Space/Community Space: Developing Qualitative Research for Canadian Roma through Digital Media
Cynthia Levine-Rasky (PI), SSHRC Insight Development Grant, 2011-2012. $17,543

Other Areas of Research Expertise

In addition to the Graduate Clusters and the research project clusters, core and cross-appointed faculty undertake supervision and research across the following areas: