Faculty Profiles

Jerry Durlak

Technology in Practice

University		York University
E-Mail Address		jdurlak@calumet.yorku.ca
Phone Number
Office Location		TEL 3003
Office Hours		TBA

Education

BA, (Notre Dame); MA, (Stanford); PhD, (Michigan State)

Biography

Jerry has served as the Coordinator of the Communication Studies Program in the Faculty of Arts, Director of the Communication Studies Collaboration Lab, and Associate Director of the CulTech Research Centre. Currently, he is a member of the Faculty of the Interactive Art and Entertainment Program at the Canadian Film Centre. He continues to teach seminars on global communications and the social impact of new communication technologies, networks, and social media. Jerry has conducted applied research and assessment tasks, and supervised large-scale interdisciplinary research projects in Canada, Europe, Latin America and the United States.

Research Interests

Currently he is completing a book Bottom Up which examines how people from the “bottom billion” are using advanced communication technologies and social media on their own initiatives to improve the quality of their lives. He is also interested in communication networks, virtual worlds, serious gaming, and user-created content and software.

Selected Publications

With Austin Clarkson and Karen Pegley. Creative applications for multi-sensory interactive media. York University Centre for the Study of Computers in Education, 1993.

With Joan Lehman and Janet McClain. “The school environment : a study of user patterns”, Ministry of Education, Ontario, 1973.

By Field of Study

Alphabetical

Lorraine Janzen-Kooistra
Jennifer Jenson

Wendy Wong

Harold [Innis] taught us how to use the bias of culture and communication as an instrument of research. By directing attention to the bias, or distorting power of the dominant imagery and technology of any culture, he showed us how to understand cultures.

~ Marshall McLuhan

Graduate Program in Communication & Culture