Feminist Think Tank
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CV
Dr. Shana MacDonald
Associate Professor
Communication Arts, University of Waterloo
Former President of the Film Studies Association of Canada (2021-2022)
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Co-Founder and Co-Director, qCollaborative
Feminist Design Research Lab
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Degrees
PhD – Communication and Culture
York University, 2013
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MA – Cinema and Media Studies
York University, 2005
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BFA – Fine and Image Arts
Ryerson University, 2001
Dissertation Title:
“Between Frames: Feminist Experimental Media 1960-2010”
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Publications
Books
Wiens, Brianna I., Shana MacDonald, Michelle MacArthur, and Milena Radzikowska (eds.). 2022. Stories of Feminist Protest and Resistance: Digital Performative Assemblies. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books. https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781666913514/Stories-of-Feminist-Protest-and-Resistance-Digital-Performative-Assemblies
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MacDonald, Shana., Brianna I. Wiens, Michelle MacArthur, and Milena Radzikowska (eds.). 2021. Networked Feminisms: Activist Assemblies and Digital Practices. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books. https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781793613790/Networked-Feminisms-Activist-Assemblies-and-Digital-Practices
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Long, Paul., and Tim Wall, with Shana MacDonald (eds.). 2021. Media Studies: Texts, Production, Context 3rd ed. Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/Media-Studies-Texts-Production-Context/Long-Johnson-MacDonald-Bader-Wall/p/book/9781138914407
Chapters in Books:
MacDonald, Shana and Brianna I. Wiens. Accepted for publication. “We Still Don’t Understand We’re at War”: Media Toxicity and Social Media Disinformation Ecologies.” In Design in the Anthropocene, edited by Milena Radzikowska, Guillaume Englert Correa Meyer, and Stan Ruecker. MIT Press.
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MacDonald, Shana and Brianna I. Wiens. "Back to the Future of Postfeminist Films: Hallmark, Netflix, and the 'New' Woman's holiday Films." In Countdown to Hallmark, edited by Deborah Shaw and Rob Stone. Forthcoming Bloomsbury.
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MacDonald, Shana. 2023. “From Memes to Hashtags to Stans: Feminist Audience Responses to #MeToo in Sex Education.” In Sex Education: Theory and Practice, edited by Deborah Shaw and Rob Stone. Forthcoming Bloomsbury.
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MacDonald, Shana., Brianna I. Wiens, and Michelle MacArthur. 2023. “Assemblies of Resistance: Feminist Stories, Protest, and Dissent in the Digital Age.” In Stories of Feminist Protest and Resistance: Digital Performative Assemblies, edited by Brianna I. Wiens, Michelle MacArthur, Shana MacDonald, and Milena Radzikowska. Lexington Books. https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781666913514/Stories-of-Feminist-Protest-and-Resistance-Digital-Performative-Assemblies
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MacDonald, Shana and Brianna I. Wiens. 2022. “Feminist Memes: Digital Communities, Identity Performance, and Resistance from the Shadows.” In Materializing Digital Futures: Touch, Movement, Sound and Vision, edited by Toija Cinque and Jordan Beth Vincent. Bloomsbury. https://www.bloomsbury.com/ca/materializing-digital-futures-9781501361265/
MacDonald, Shana. 2022. “Flipping the Script on Consent: Re-centering Young Women’s Sexual Agency in Teen Comedies.” In Screening #Times Up: Exploring Rape Culture in Hollywood Film, edited by Lisa Funnell and Ralph Beliveau. SUNY P. https://sunypress.edu/Books/S/Screening-MeToo
Roberts-Smith, Jennifer, Shana MacDonald, and Brianna I. Wiens. In Press for Summer 2022. “‘I Can(‘t) Do That’: The Multi-Mangle of Theatrical Vibrancy.” In Théâtre et Nouveaux Matérialismes, edited by Hervé Guay, Jean-Marc Larrue, and Nicole Nolette. Presses de l’Université de Montréal.
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MacDonald, Shana., Brianna I. Wiens, Michelle MacArthur, and Milena Radzikowska (eds.). 2021. “Introduction: Feminist Takes on Networking Justice.” In Networked Feminisms: Activist Assemblies and Digital Practices. Lexington Books. https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781793613790/Networked-Feminisms-Activist-Assemblies-and-Digital-Practices
MacDonald, Shana. 2021. ““Vital acts of transfer”: Affective economies and embodied knowledge in #MeToo.” In Performing #MeToo: How Not to Look Away, edited by Judith Rudakoff. University of Chicago Press. https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/P/bo94635198.html​
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MacDonald, Shana. 2018. “The City (as) Place: Performative Re-mappings of Urban Space Through Artistic Research.” In Performance As Research: Knowledge, Methodology, Impact, edited by Bruce Barton, Melanie Dyer and et al. Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/Performance-as-Research-Knowledge-methods-impact/Arlander-Barton-Dreyer-Lude-Spatz/p/book/9781138068711
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MacDonald, Shana. 2018. “The Performative Politics of Shary Boyle’s Intermedial Projection Art.” In Sculpting Cinema, edited by Solomon Nagler and Melanie Wilmink. Pleasure Dome. https://pdome.org/publication/sculpting-cinema-ed-melanie-wilmink-solomon-nagler/
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MacDonald, Shana. 2010. “Materiality and Metaphor: Rape in Art Cinema in Anne Claire Poirier’s Mourir à tue-tête and Jean-Luc Godard’s Weekend.” In Rape in Art Cinema, edited by Dominique Russell. Continuum. https://www.bloomsbury.com/ca/rape-in-art-cinema-9781441109774/
Articles in Refereed Journals:
MacDonald, Shana and Brianna I. Wiens. “‘It’s Okay to Not be Okay During a Pandemic’: A Critical Data Approach to Feminist Memes and Community Formation During the Covid-19 Pandemic,” Journal of Gender Studies (Forthcoming, 2023).
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MacDonald, Shana, Brianna I. Wiens and Nick Ruest. “Dwelling with Feminist Media Archives in the Age of Big Data," Internet Histories (Invitation to submit for review March 2024).
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MacDonald, Shana and Brianna I. Wiens. “From Placards to Memes: The Utopic Refusals of Feminist Media Techno-Imaginaries,” Feminist Encounters (Submitted for review Sept 2023).
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MacDonald, Shana and Brianna I. Wiens. “Witches in Swamps and Sirens at Sea: Feminist Figures that Haunt TechBroTopias,” Public (Submitted for review July 2023).
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MacDonald, Shana and Brianna I. Wiens. Forthcoming 2023. “Dwelling as Method: Lingering in/with Feminist Curated Data-Sets on Instagram,” Journal of Digital Social Research (submitted for review May 2023).
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MacDonald, Shana, Brianna I. Wiens and Aynur Kadir. 2023. “Feminist Relationality in Practice: Pedagogies of Critical Friendship and Careful Support,” Digital Studies/Le Champ Numérique (Under Revision).
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MacDonald, Shana and Brianna I. Wiens. “Meme-ifying Data: The Rise of Public Health Influencers on Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter during Covid-19.” JDSR: Journal of Digital Social Research (In Press).
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MacDonald, Shana. 2023. “The Queer Imaginaries of Witches and Magical Beings in Feminist YA Graphic Novels,” MAI: Feminism and Visual Culutre Special Issue: Embodying Feminist Discourse in Comics and Graphic Novels. https://maifeminism.com/the-queer-and-feminist-worlds-of-witches-and-magical-beings/
MacDonald, Shana. 2022. ““All Your Faves Are Problematic”: The Performative Spectatorship of Drunk Feminist Films,” Camera Obscura: Feminism, Culture, and Media Studies. https://doi.org/10.1215/02705346-9787056
Wiens, Brianna I. and Shana MacDonald. 2021. “Living Whose Best Life? An Intersectional Feminist Interrogation of Postfeminist #Solidarity in #SelfCare.” NECSUS: European Journal of Media Studies, Special Issue on #Solidarity 10(1), 219-242. https://doi.org/10.25969/mediarep/16254
Shana MacDonald. 2021. “The Aesthetic Lives of Performers: Rethinking Intermediality in the films of Yvonne Rainer and Carolee Schneemann” Cinéma&Cie 34. https://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/cinemaetcie/article/view/16170
Wiens, Brianna. I, Stan Rucker, Jennifer Roberts-Smith, Milena Radzikowska, and Shana MacDonald. 2020. “Materializing Data: New Research Methods for 4 Feminist Digital Humanities.” Digital Studies/Le Champ Numérique 10(1): 13, 1-22. http://doi.org/10.16995/dscn.373
Wiens, Brianna I. and Shana MacDonald. 2020. “Feminist Futures: #MeToo’s Possibilities as Poiesis, Techné, and Pharmakon.” Feminist Media Studies 21(7): 1108-1124. https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2020.1770312
Shana MacDonald. 2020. “What do you (really) meme?: Pandemic memes as social political repositories” Leisure Sciences Special Issue: Leisure in the time of coronavirus. Online. https://doi.org/10.1080/01490400.2020.1773995
Shana MacDonald. 2020. “Refusing to Smile for the Patriarchy: Jessica Jones as Feminist Killjoy” Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts 30.1 (2019): 68-84. ISSN: 08970521/139069261
MacDonald, Shana and Brianna I. Wiens. 2019. “Mobilizing the ‘Multi-Mangle’: Why New Materialist Research Methods in Public Participatory Art Matter.” Leisure Sciences, Special Issue on Posthumanism 41(5): 366-384. DOI: 10.1080/01490400.2019.1627960
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Shana MacDonald. 2018. “Reimaging Public Space in Expanded Cinema Exhibition,” Canadian Journal of Film Studies 27.1 (2018): 16-30. https://doi.org/10.3138/cjfs.27.1.2017-0012
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Shana MacDonald. 2018. “The Psychogeographies of Site-Specific Art,” Media Theory Journal 1.2
Public Writing
“Counterspeech Workshop Final Report,” in Evaluation and Analysis Report for workshops held by Coalition of Muslim Women of Kitchener-Waterloo, co-author Brianna Wiens (March 2023).
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“Counterspeech Workshop,” in Evaluation report for Coalition of Muslim Women of Kitchener-Waterloo, co-author Brianna Wiens (June 2022).
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“Not Influencers, but Amplifiers: @aesthetic.resistance as Feminist IG Hack” in Visualizing Objects, Places, and Spaces: A Digital Project Handbook, edited by Hanna Jacobs and Beth Fischer (Duke UP, 2021). https://handbook.pubpub.org/pub/case-aesthetic-resistance/release/1
“Cinema Snacks: Movie Memes as Pandemic Catharsis” SCMS+ Short Attention Span Criticism, June 2020 https://www.cmstudies.org/page/SCMSPlus
“Pop-Up and The Aesthetics of Assembly,” Canadian Theatre Review 167, Special Issue on “Choreographies of Assembly,” 2018: 75-79. https://doi.org/10.3138/ctr.176.013
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Invited Addresses
"21st Century Feminist Film and Digital Visual Cultures." Invited Speaker. Digital Cultures Speakers Series, University of Ottawa, October 28, 2022.
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“Through the Looking Glass: A Feminist Scholar in the web archives.” Invited Speaker. Archives Unleashed Cohort Closing Meeting, Internet Archive The Permanent Library Limited, Vancouver, BC. June 2, 2022.
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“Data Feminism, Embodied Practices, and Internet Archives.” Invited Speaker. Digital Humanities Lecture Series, University of Ottawa, April 22, 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5SUKLcYzug
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“The Crossroads of SHNs / DH-Hub An initiative of the University of Ottawa / A University of Ottawa initiative.” Featured Speaker at Joint DH Lecture Series, April 22 2022. Accepted February 4, 2022.
“Everything Old is New Again: A Comparative Analysis of Feminist Media Tactics between the 2nd- to 4th Waves.” Invited Speaker. Applications of Web Archive Research with the Archives Unleashed Cohort Program, Internet Archive. March 16, 2022. Online. http://blog.archive.org/2022/03/21/library-as-laboratory-recap-applications-of-web-archive-research-with-the-archive-unleashed-cohort-program/
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“Responsible Technology and Design.” Invited Speaker. uXperience Design for Good Micro-Conference, UWaterloo Stratford School, February 11-12, 2022. Online.
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“Feminist Media Studies Approaches to Studying Digital Activist Meme-scapes.” Invited Speaker. Hosted by the Memes Network, Center for Data, Culture, and Society, University of Edinburgh, November 15, 2021.
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“UWSA Vaccine Q&A” Hosted by the University of Waterloo. September 28, 2021.
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“GI Playbook: Publishing in the Humanities” Live broadcast talk with Q&A, hosted by the Games Institute, University of Waterloo, ON: May 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19b77YRa-TM&feature=youtu.be
“COVID-19: Ask our experts - Social Media and Our Quarantine Life” Live broadcast talk with Q&A, moderated by Dean Shelia Ager, University of Waterloo, ON: May 2020.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgUdl1V5qEk
“Feminist Research-Creation Methods within Contemporary Public Art Practice” Games Institute, Waterloo ON: February 2020.
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“Creative Research Design for the Resistance.” Invited Public Research Talk at the Games Institute, University of Waterloo, February 27, 2020.
"Feminists Do Media – The Art of Social Media Activism" X-Camera Speakers Series, Inter Arts Matrix, Kitchener ON: February 2020.
“Public Feminist Technologies” W3 Represents Symposium, Waterloo, ON: February 2019.
“Materializing Memes” Interdisciplinary Mash-up Event, Arts Faculty, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON: February 2019.
Public Outreach and Knowledge Mobilization
DH Site Summer 2023 Workshop series: “Meme-ing the Resistance.” University of Ottawa. Co-facilitate online workshop on memes as data to analyze and method for research practice. May 25, 2023.
DH@Guelph Summer 2023 Workshop series: “Materializing the Collection.” University of Guelph. Co-facilitate with Brianna Wiens a four-day intensive digital humanities workshop. May 9-12, 2023.
Counterspeech Lab: "Safer and Vital Communities Part III.” Workshop Session with the Coalition of Muslim Women KW: How To Combat Online Hate for Ages 18-25. Co-Organizer and Co-Moderator with Brianna Wiens. January 5-6, 2023.
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Counterspeech Lab: "Safer and Vital Communities Part II (for Teens).” Workshop Session with the Coalition of Muslim Women KW: How To Combat Online Hate for Ages 14-17. Co-Organizer and Co-Moderator with Brianna Wiens, August 23, 2022.
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Counterspeech Lab: “Safer and Vital Communities Part I (for Youth).” Workshop Session with the Coalition of Muslim Women KW: How To Combat Online Hate. Co-Organizer and Co-Moderator. March 15, 2022.
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Networked Feminisms Speaker Series: “Digital Activism in Practice". University of Waterloo. Co-Organizer and Host. March 14, 2022.
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Networked Feminisms Speaker Series: “Networked Identities and Communities. University of Waterloo.” Co-Organizer and Host. February 16, 2022.
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Data Jam: Feminist Think Tank in Collaboration with the Critical Tech Talk Series: Wendy Chun––Discriminating Data. Co-Organizer. February 10, 2022.
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Networked Feminisms Speaker Series: “Conceptual Frameworks for Networked Feminism.” University of Waterloo. Co-Organizer and Host. January 27, 2022.
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Data Jam: “Feminist Think Tank Presents: Small Data vs. Big Data.” Games Institute, University of Waterloo. Co-Organizer and Co-Moderator. December 8, 2021.
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Data Jam: “Feminist Think Tank Presents: Everything But The Kitchen Sink.” Games Institute, University of Waterloo. Co-Organizer and Co-Moderator. November 25, 2021.
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Colouring Book: “Feminists Coloring Feminists” Vol. 2. Curator and Contributor. November 23, 2021.
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Colouring Book: “Colouring Feminist Activists” Vol. 1. Curator and Contributor. May 2021.
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Canadian Association for Theatre Research: "Performances and Performatives within Digital Feminist Activism." Chair and organizer with Michelle MacArthur, Vancouver, BC: June 2019.
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Simone De Beauvoir Institute 40th Anniversary Conference: “Public feminisms and intersectional placemaking workshop,” Chair and co-facilitator. Montreal, QC: May 2018.
Popular Culture Association of Canada: “Entanglements of Affection: Neoliberalism, (Post)Feminism, and Heterosexual Love,” Chair, presenter and co-organizer. Niagara Falls, ON: May 2017.
Conference Papers
“Approaches to Archiving Feminist Memes." Preserving Digital Born Media by Women: methods for decolonial & feminist futures (Panel). Film and Media Studies Association of Canada annual conference, May 2023.
“Activists Archiving the Internet: Social Justice Informed Approaches to Digitally Born Content.” Panel with Nick Ruest, Brianna Wiens, Shawn Walker, Mina Momeni. Shaking Up the Archive, Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, June 23-25, 2023. Accepted February 2023.
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“Reconceptualizing Internet Archives: Feminist Memes as Repertoire.” Canadian Association for Theatre Research, Halifax, June 9-12, 2023. Accepted February 2023.
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“Storming the TechBro-stille: Breaking Down Technology’s Exclusionary Gates.” Panel with Lai-Tze Fan, Susan Flavelle, Brianna Wiens. Canadian Communication Association. Toronto, ON, May 30-June 2, 2023. Accepted February 2023.
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“Methodological Developments and Challenges in Visual Politics and Protest.” Panelist with Dr. Radhika Gajjala, Dr. Jing Zeng & Dr. Stefania Vicari. International Communication Association annual conference, May 25-29, 2023. Toronto, Ontario. Accepted January 2023.
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“Developing multimedia tools to address concerns re COVID-19 vaccine's impact on fertility: a mixed methods approach.” Co-author with NM Waite, R Hussein, E Vernon-Wilson E, K Grindrod, M Tetui M, B Wiens. Canadian Immunization Conference [Poster], Ottawa ON, April 2023.
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“Visual Politics and Protest - Current Challenges.” Respondent. Panel with Dr. Jing Zeng & Dr. Stefania Vicari. ECREA Visual Cultures, October 6-7, 2022. Online.
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“Exploring Feminist Media Archives in the Age of Big Data” with Brianna Wiens. International Data Power Conference. Upcoming: June 21-24, 2022.
“Digital Performance Working Group” Canadian Association for Theatre Research, June 7, 2022, Online.
“Reflections and future actions.” Panel. Archives Unleashed Cohort Closing Meeting, Internet Archive The Permanent Library Limited, Vancouver, BC. June 2, 2022.
“Social Justice Oriented Critical Design Pedagogy in Urgent Times” with Aynur Kadir, Brianna Wiens, Milena Radzikowska, Jennifer Roberts-Smith, and Stan Ruecker. Curated Panel. DH Unbounded. Upcoming: May 2022.
“Feminist memes as media events and sites of community formations.” Digital Feminisms Panel at the Digital Americas Conference, Online, October 2021.
“Amplifying active influence: @aesthetic.resistance as feminist IG hack.” Methods, Theories, and Taking Action Through Gender and Feminisms in HCI workshop, Hanover, Germany, September 2021.
“Coming together while staying apart: Feminist Memes as a means of Community Formation during COVID.” Feminisms in the Age of Covid-19 and Beyond Confernece, Online: September 2021.
"Maybe it's basic and trendy, or maybe it's a global feminist awakening": Witch Memes as Feminist Shadow Resistance” The Witch Institute Symposium, Queen’s Univeristy. Online: August 2021.
“The Hermeneutics of Generativity” co-presented with members of the qcolloaborative (Jennifer-Roberts Smith, Brianna Wiens, Aynur Kadir). Canadian Society of Digital Humanities, Online: June 2021.
“Contemporary and Historical Feminisms: Continuities, Comparisons, and Contradictions,” Panel chair and respondent. Society of Cinema and Media Studies, Online: March 2021.
“Digital Feminist Research Hacks – Undermining Platform Capitalism on the ‘gram” Chesapeake Digital Humanities Consortium 2021 Conference: Social Justice and Online Activism. February 25-26, 2021. Online.
“Recovering #SelfCare for Intersectional Feminist Futures: Neoliberalism, Self-Care, and Whiteness in Hashtag Communities” co-author Brianna Wiens. Chesapeake Digital Humanities Consortium 2021 Conference: Social Justice and Online Activism. February 25-26, 2021. Online.
“Fostering Feminist and Queer Futures: Instagram Hacking for the Resistance,” co-author Brianna Wiens. Futures of Feminist and Queer Solidarities: Connectivity, Materiality, and Mobility in a Digitalized World International Online
Conference, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Sept 30-October 2, 2020. https://futuresolidarities.org/
“Remixing Technocutures: Feminist Interventions into Platform Conformity,” co-author Brianna Wiens. International Conference on Communication and Media Studies, Toronto, ON: October 2020.
“From Influencer to Amplifier: @aesthetic.resistance as Feminist IG Hack,” Methods, Theories, and Taking Action Through Gender and Feminisms in HCI workshop, Hanover, Germany: July 2020.
“From memes to hashtags to stans: Film Paratexts and Contemporary Feminist Fan Cultures,” Film Studies Association of Canada, London, ON: June 2020. Conference canceled.
Media Appearances
Interview with Terry Pender. “First pandemic of social media age a communications failure: Social media disinformation caused thousands of deaths” The Record. March 24, 2023. https://www.therecord.com/news/waterloo-region/2023/03/24/first-pandemic-of-social-media-age-a-communications-failure.html
Interview with Laura Beeson. “Influences and Audiences” Canadian Media Fund Annual Report. January 25, 2023. https://prospective2023.cmf-fmc.ca/Influences-Audiences/recommendation-engines-gone-wild
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Interview with Spencer Turcotte. “Connecting the dots: What the Rogers network outage suggests about our digital habits” ctvnews.com. July 11, 2022. https://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/connecting-the-dots-what-the-rogers-network-outage-suggests-about-our-digi tal-habits-1.5983295
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Radio Interview with Alan Carter. “We need stability & direction': How lack of messaging from Ontario's top doctor hurt us in the 6th wave” 640 Toronto Radio. April 11, 2022. https://omny.fm/shows/alan-carter/we-need-stability-direction-how-lack-of-messaging
Podcast Interview with Mary Churchill. “Creating Space in Academia with Shana MacDonald” the VIEWS from Venus. December 9, 2021. https://the-view-from-venus.simplecast.com/episodes/42-creating-space-in-academia-with-shana-macdonald-geu7XMXZ
Podcast Interview. “Interview with Shana MacDonald / Feminist Think Tank and Instagram Research, Activism, and Education” Teachin’ Books. November 16, 2021. https://teachinbooks.com/