SPEAKERS
DR. VICTORIA E. THOMAS
Simon Fraser University
Opening Speaker - Day 2 (May 11)
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.
DR. SARA GRIMES
University of Toronto
Opening Speaker - Day 1 (May 10)
Dr. Sara M. Grimes is Director of the Knowledge Media Design Institute (KMDI) and Semaphore Labs, as well as Associate Professor in the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto. Her research and teaching are centred in the areas of children’s digital media culture(s) and critical theories of technology, with a focus on digital games. Her published work explores the commercialization of children’s play culture and creative expression, discussions of intellectual property and fair dealing in child-specific digital environments, as well as the legal and ethical dimensions of marketing to children online.
DR. MERLYNA LIM
Carleton University
Closing Speaker - Day 2 (May 11)
Merlyna Lim is a  Canada Research Chair in Digital Media and Global Network Society with the School of Journalism and Communication at Carleton University.  An ALiGN Media Lab founder/director, Merlyna Lim’s research interests revolve around the mutual shaping of technology and society, and political culture of technology, especially digital media and information technology, in relation to issues of justice, democracy and civic/participatory engagement. Among her notable publications are Roots, Routes, Routers: Communication and Media of Contemporary Social Movements  (2018) and Online Collective Action: Dynamics of the Crowds in Social Media  (2014).
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