Chair: Dr. Sarah Ganter

Sarah Anne Ganter (PhD, University of Vienna, 2017) is an Associate Professor of Communication and Cultural Policy in the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University. At SFU she is the Director of the Digital Content & Platform Governance Lab. She is an expert in the areas of media governance and media policy in the digital era, journalism and other content industries, comparative and cross-border research. Her expertise includes analyzing media and digital policy transformations from a theoretical perspective that focuses on the dynamics and interactions shaping institutional fields. Dr. Ganter’ s work is influenced by a cosmopolitan approach to academic work, integrating scholarly work from different cultural, linguistic and geographical academic settings.

For a complete overview over Dr. Ganter's research, please consult her faculty bio, Google Scholar and Research Gate profiles, or her personal website.

Kayli Jamieson

Kayli is a recent MA graduate from SFU's School of Communication, and a Knowledge Mobilization Specialist in the Faculty of Health Sciences. Her research background is on Long COVID, public health, biopolitics, and news media analysis. She enjoys engaging in knowledge translation, Long COVID advocacy, and science communication.

Vinisa Nurul Aisyah

Vinisa is a PhD student at the School of Communication SFU and a Research Fellow at the EDIT Projects. Her doctoral research examines how independent media in Indonesia construct counter-narratives around environmental issues, with a focus on digital journalism, discourse theory, and critical discourse analysis. She is particularly interested in the intersections of media autonomy, environmental advocacy, and democratic politics in post-authoritarian contexts.

Daria Hetmanova

Daria Hetmanova is currently pursuing their PhD at the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University, Canada. Working at the intersection of science and technology studies and critical security studies, Daria currently focuses on analysing the Russian-established infrastructure of “filtration” during Russia’s war against Ukraine. 

Joan Letting

Joan Letting is a PhD student at Simon Fraser University, Canada, whose research sits at the intersection of media, journalism, and digital cultures in Africa. Her work examines how platform infrastructures shape participation, visibility, and collective memory, with a focus on Kenya and other African contexts. Adopting feminist digital ethnographic approaches, she explores online violence, counter-memory practices, and the role of everyday digital communication in reconfiguring public discourse. She is also interested in African storytelling, humour, and creative expression as forms of resistance. Joan has professional experience in journalism and digital communication from Kenya, bridging academic research with policy and public-facing conversations.

Chair: Dr. Victoria Thomas

Dr. Victoria E. Thomas is an Assistant Professor of Media and Public Engagement in the School of Communication. As an interdisciplinary scholar of Black Popular Cultural Studies, she primarily analyzes popular media to articulate how visual culture represents Blackness and Black identities. Her research is committed to political and civic engagement, diversity, and inclusion in public institutions to transform societal conditions. Dr. Thomas’ current research examines the communication practices of Black cisgender and transgender women in our contemporary media moment of hypervisibility of Black transgender women and intersectional feminism.

Read more on the School of Communication website here.

Emily Eckland

Emily Eckland is a first-year MA student in the School of Communications at Simon Fraser University. She is a seasoned Communications professional and has five years of experience conducting promotions through her social media, written copy, photography, and graphic design skills. As a queer American studying in Canada, she is passionate about shedding light on the complexities of the current political climate under a second Trump administration, as it is presented through the news and social media. 

Noelle Gesner

Noelle graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from Simon Fraser University in 2024. She is interested in media studies, with a particular focus on film and television. Her research examines the intersections of gender, representation, and power in media, exploring how contemporary narratives both reflect and shape social inequalities.

Bukola Balogun

Bukola is an undergraduate student at Simon Fraser University who is currently completing a joint major in Communication and Business with a concentration in marketing. 

Chair: Laya Behbahani

Laya Behbahani is the Director of the Student Experience Initiative. She is also a Sessional Instructor in Labour Studies and a PhD student at the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University. She completed her BA(Hons) and MA at the School of Criminology at SFU before completing further course work at the University of Vienna, BCIT and Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. She previously worked at the Human Trafficking and Migrant Smuggling Section of the UN Office in Vienna, Austria, served as a researcher at the Centre of Excellence in Responsible Business at the Schulich School of Business and was a Partner at a think tank in Washington DC.

Kiara Okonkwo

Kiara Destiny Okonkwo (she/her) is a writer, community organizer, and master’s student in the Communication Research for Social Change program at Simon Fraser University. She holds an undergraduate degree in creative writing and communication from the University of the Fraser Valley and a screenwriting diploma from Vancouver Film School. In her graduate studies, she is experimenting with research creation modalities to explore Black creative and cultural work in so-called Vancouver. 

Diana Limbaga

Having grown up in the Philippines, Diana's research is focused on the nexus of communication and labour and development economics in the Global South. Her thesis is currently focused on looking at the working conditions of virtual assistants in the Philippines, and understanding possibilities for collective action in this industry. Diana holds a Master of Arts in Communication and received her Bachelor of Arts in Communication from Simon Fraser University in 2023. 

Kanksha Chawla

Kanksha is an MA student at the School of Communication, Simon Fraser University. She has organized with various research and grassroots organizations around labour power, student democracy, and political education. She is currently a researcher with the Contract Workers Justice project towards the goal of insourcing janitorial and dining staff at SFU.  

Chair: Dr. Amy Harris

Dr. Amy Harris is an experienced research manager and scholar. From the UK originally, Amy has now lived in Vancouver for the last 15+ years where she has recently completed her PhD in climate communication at Simon Fraser University. Her research investigates the role of museums and exhibitions in helping publics connect with climate futures. She now brings that focus to UBC and the CCJ, where she is working to advance climate justice principles across multiple interdisciplinary projects, making their findings accessible and usable, and supporting the affiliated faculty and students. She is also working on a book project with two colleagues, provisionally titled Grief, Decay & Futurity: We Need New Ways to Talk About the End of the World which brings together many of these interconnected issues. Both her scholarly work and her role as manager of the Digital Democracies Institute at SFU have prepared her well for the Centre for Climate Justice, where she is now apply her skills to support the activities of the CCJ at this significant time. 

Caitlin Price

Caitlin is a Masters student in the Human Rights and Social Justice program at Thompson Rivers University, with a documentary production certificate from Capilano University and BA in philosophy from York University. Her latest project is a short film on salmon decline in the Lower Nicola Valley.

Miranda Post [virtual presenter]

Miranda is an MA student in the Communication Research for Social Change program at the SFU School of Communication.  She has worked in non-profit and government communications for over 15 years at the nexus of Indigenous knowledge, community engagement/storytelling and ecological communications. Miranda is deeply committed to exploring multiple knowledges in ecological storytelling. Her favourite days as a communicator involve: wearing gumboots, learning about culture and ecosystems on the land and sea with diverse groups of people. When she is not studying Miranda is a prolific baker, jammer and basketball mom. 

Chair: Dr. Frédérik Lesage 

Dr. Frédérik Lesage is an Associate Professor in the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University and Associate Director at the Digital Democracies Institute. He completed his doctoral thesis at the London School of Economics and Political Science in 2009 in the Department of Media and Communications on the topic of how creative organizations appropriate new media infrastructural standards as part of collective artistic practices. Frédérik specializes in teaching digital culture and theories of cultural production. Prior to his current appointment, Frédérik lectured at King's College London and the University of Cambridge.  His research explores digital media, creative practice, and sociotechnical imaginaries. He co-founded the Imaginative Methods Lab and teaches courses on media theory, digital infrastructures, and interdisciplinary methods with a focus on critical and collaborative inquiry.

Angelica Parente

Angelica Parente is a second-year Criminology graduate student at Simon Fraser University. Her master’s thesis examines the relationship between temporal lobe dysfunction and criminal behaviour.  Her other research interests include wrongful convictions, vulnerable populations, crime prevention strategies, and policing.  In addition to pursuing her master’s degree, Angelica is currently involved with the Coquitlam RCMP, SFU’s Forensic Entomology laboratory, the FREDA Centre, and St. Thomas More’s Truth and Reconciliation committee.

Ciaran Irwin

Ciaran Irwin is an MA Researcher at Simon Fraser University, whose work positions information disorder, extremism and authoritarianism as externalities of tech platform business models in the digital engagement economy.

Jennifer Mentanko

Jennifer Mentanko is a PhD candidate in the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University. Her research interests are disruptive technology, social construction and the diffusion of innovation. Specifically, she looks at the social construction of blockchain technology and cryptocurrency. She also works in the GeNA Lab investigating the social, economic and political impacts of blockchain.

Chair: Prem Sylvester

Prem Sylvester is a researcher and co-lead of the Beyond Verification project at the Digital Democracies Institute. He is also a panel manager and consulting scientist for the International Panel on the Information Environment’s Scientific Panel on Global Standards for AI Audits. Prem holds an MA in communication from Simon Fraser University, Canada and a B.Tech in Information Technology from College of Engineering Guindy, India. He has previously published in ephemera: theory & politics in organization and has work forthcoming in the International Journal of Communication. He is interested in network politics and cultures, logistical media, and the histories that cross these social and spatial relations, and will soon be beginning his doctoral studies in this area. 

Bomin Keum

Bomin is a PhD student in the International CyberCrime Research Institute and School of Criminology at SFU. She completed her B.A. Honours (Distinction) in Criminology at SFU and her MPhil in Criminological Research at the University of Cambridge. Her previous work focused on online radicalization patterns. Now, she studies what works to disrupt those patterns. She does so by: interviewing individuals navigating exit, conducting a Campbell Systematic Review of radicalization prevention programs, evaluating Large Language Model performance—and who knows what else, more to come!  

Robert Duhaime

Robert Duhaime is a Master's student in the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University. His research explores disinformation, media, and public disengagement, with a focus on how UFO discourse operates as a contested social reality. Before returning to academia, Robert spent years in telecom leadership and as a long-haul truck driver, experiences that shape his practical approach to communication and systems thinking. His work connects theory with lived experience, emphasizing pattern recognition, interdisciplinary thinking, and making complex ideas accessible.

Maggie Ku

Maggie is currently pursuing her MA within the School of Criminology at SFU, where her research focuses on preventing wrongful convictions caused by faulty forensic evidence. Previously, she completed an Honours Bachelor of Science at the University of Toronto, specializing in Forensic Anthropology, as she is drawn to the intersection of law and forensic science. Lately, Maggie has been pursuing AI passion projects on the side, including research on perceptions of AI psychosis and recognizing AI-generated artwork from human-created work, which she will present on for this conference.