Caitlin McKinney
PhD candidate in Communication and Culture, York
University
482 Lansdowne Ave, Apt 2
Toronto ON
M6H 3Y3
416.857.0726
cmck@yorku.ca
www.caitlinmckinney.ca
My interests include critical theory, feminist media studies, and the archive. My research considers the use of
online media in late 20th-century queer social movements in the United States and Canada.
Education
PhD. York University. Communication & Culture. Expected Completion 2015.
Dissertation Title: Queer Internet Histories: The Cultural Politics of Information from Lesbian Feminism to the Gay Liberation
Movement
Supervisor Dr. Susan Driver
MA. York University. Communication & Culture. 2010.
Thesis: Making Out on the Internet: Interpreting Popular Photographs on AfterEllen.com.
Supervisor Dr. Susan Driver
BA, Hons. University of British Columbia. Major English Literature. Minor Critical Studies in Sexuality. 2006.
Thesis: Merely Sad and Troubling: Toward a Feminist Re-Configuration of Trauma in Salinger’s Nine Stories.
Supervisor: Dr. Michael Zeitlin
Grants and Awards
SSHRC, Michael Smith Foreign Study Supplement, 2012. $6,000.
SSHRC, Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship Doctoral, 2011. $105,000.
Ontario Graduate Scholarship, Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities, 2011. $15,000 (awarded but not held).
Graduate Entrance Scholarship, York University, 2010. $3,000.
Nominated for Annual York Thesis Prize, York University, 2010.
Ontario Graduate Scholarship, Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities, 2009. $15,000.
Graduate Entrance Scholarship, York University, 2008. $3,000.
Dean’s List, University of British Columbia, 2006.
Undergraduate Scholar Program Scholarship, University of British Columbia, 2006. $2,100.
Publications
(Forthcoming) Journal Article, “Why We Make Jokes About Lesbian Feminism: Humour as Generational Encounter in the
Archive.” Time Sensitive. Feminist Art Gallery (FAG) (2013/2014).
Book review, “Cameron Duder, Awfully Devoted Women: Lesbian Lives in Canada, 1900-65,” TOPIA: Canadian Journal of
Cultural Studies 26 (Fall 2011).
Journal article, “Leibovitz and Sontag: Picturing an Ethics of Queer Domesticity,” Shift: Queen’s Graduate Journal of Visual
and Material Culture, 3 (Oct 2010). http://www.shiftjournal.org/articles/2010/mckinney.htm.
Critical essay, “Toronto’s Artscape Wychwood Barns,” Visible Cities Project and Archive (April 2009).
http://www.visiblecity.ca/home/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=187&Itemid=64.
Introduction, “Helsinki: Jaako Rustanius,” Visible Cities Project and Archive, October 2008,
http://www.visiblecity.ca/home/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=128&Itemid=65.
Article and multimedia project, “American suffrage valentines: a critical annotation”, Newsletter of the Sewall-Belmont House
and Museum, Washington DC, Feb 2007.
Presentations
(Upcoming) Conference paper, “Why We Make Jokes About Lesbian Feminism: Humour as Generational Encounter in the
Archive.” Berkshire Conference on Women’s History. University of Toronto, Toronto ON, May 22 – 25, 2014.
(Upcoming) Conference paper, “The Internet that Lesbians Built: Networked Communication in Feminist Print Culture (1970–
95).” Canadian Association of Cultural Studies, Wilfred Laurier University, Waterloo ON, Jan 16 – 19, 2014.
Invited Guest Lecture, “The Emergence of LGBT Niche Marketing.” COMN 3700 Advertising: The Growth of a 20th Century
Belief System, York University, Toronto ON, Nov 21, 2014.
Invited Panel Participant, “TORNADO TAG TEAM Artistic, Cultural, and Activist Responses to TAG TEAM: Gay Premises
and Gay Premises: Radical Voices in the Archive, 1973 – 1983.” Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives, Toronto ON, Aug 28,
2013.
Conference paper, “10,000 Images, One Scanner, Two Volunteers: Digital Media at the Feminist Archive.” Canadian
Communication Studies Association Annual Conference. University of Victoria, Victoria BC, June 5–7, 2013.
Conference paper, “Digitizing Sex: Reckoning with Images at the Lesbian Herstory Archives.” Sexuality Studies Association
of Canada Annual Conference. University of Victoria, Victoria BC, June 1–2, 2013.
Conference paper, “At the Edges of the Digital Imperative: Digital Media in the Lesbian-Separatist Archive.” Women’s and
Gender Studies et Recherches Féministes Annual Conference. University of Victoria, Victoria BC, June 2–4, 2013.
Conference paper, “Online Technologies in the Lesbian Feminist Archive,” Canadian Cultural Studies Association
Conference, McGill University, Montreal, Nov 4–6, 2011.
Conference paper, “It Gets Better,” promised the Internet: online information flows and sexual minority political movements.”
Canadian Communication Studies Association National Congress. University of New Brunswick, Fredericton NB, June 1 June 3, 2011.
Invited Guest Lecture in COMN 2313 Introduction to Politics, Policy and the Media. “Media Controversy and Images of
Terrorism.” March 12 2010.
Conference paper, “A public/private Susan Sontag: death photographs as sites of queer knowledge in Annie
Leibovitz’s A Photographer’s Life.” Presented at Theorizing Deceit: York University English Graduate Student Association
Conference. York University, Toronto, May 1, 2009.
Conference paper, “Merely sad and troubling: towards a feminist reconfiguration of Trauma in Salinger’s Nine Stories,” paper
for the University of British Columbia Multidisciplinary Undergraduate Research Conference, Vancouver, BC, March 4, 2006.
Teaching
Teaching Assistant
2009 – Present
York University Communication Studies
Courses Taught:
COMN 3701, Advertising, Culture, and Society (Prof. Natalie Coulter)
Jan 2014 – April 2014
COMN 3700, Advertising: The Birth of a 20th Century Belief System (Prof. Natalie Coulter)
Sept 2012 – Dec 2012
COMN 1310, Introduction to Communications Studies, (Prof. David Skinner)
Nov 2011 – May 2012, Toronto
COMN 3313, Labour in the Communication and Culture Industries (Prof. Nicole Cohen)
May 2011 – June 2011, Toronto
COMN 1310, Introduction to Communications Studies, (Prof. David Skinner)
Sept 2010 – May 2011, Toronto
COMN 2313, Introduction to Politics, Policy and the Media, (Prof. Wade Rowland)
Sept 2009 – May 2010, Toronto
Service and Professional Development
Communications Committee, Sexuality Studies Association of Canada, 2013–present.
Editorial Assistant, TOPIA: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies, 2008 – present.
Research Assistant, Prof. Susan Driver, York University, May – Aug 2011.
Workshop Participant, Critical Thinking and Critical Skills: Approaches and Strategies, York University Centre for the Support
of Teaching, Feb 10, 2011.
Participant in Graduate Summer Intensive, Sexuality Summer School, The University of Manchester, Manchester, UK, May
24 – 27, 2010.
Research Assistant, Prof. Janine Marchessault, The Visible Cities Project and Archive, Sept 2008 – Sept 2009, Toronto.
Certificate, CUST 308A Special Concentration in Peer Education and Facilitation Certificate, University of British Columbia,
Faculty of Education (2004).
Other Employment
Writer and Editor, CONTACT Photography Festival, 2013.
Research Officer, Ontario Ministry of Government Services, E-Government Branch, May 2009 – Sept 2009, Toronto.
Writer and Researcher, Free The Children, September 2006 – Sept 2008, Toronto
Editor, The AMS Insider, University of British Columbia Alma Mater Society, March 2006 – Sept 2006, Vancouver