Internet, Technology and Digital Sociology
Our objective with the “Internet, Technology, and Digital Sociology” (ITDS) research cluster is to bring together like-minded sociologists who are interested in the social implications of the internet and technology, broadly defined to include computers, social media and networking platforms, information and communication technologies (ICTs), digital media, as well as many other technological innovations and developments. We welcome members with all methodological and theoretical orientations, along a diverse range of substantive topics related to the intersection of internet/technology with other areas of sociology. We aim to promote the advancement of this area within Canadian sociology and provide opportunities for interested CSA members and non-members to connect, network, and set the agenda for future research on internet and technology as it pertains to Canada and abroad. This research cluster is open to scholars, students, and any other interested parties in academic or non-academic positions.
Co-Chairs (2023-24):
Michael Adorjan, University of Calgary
Andrew D. Nevin, University of Guelph
Anabel Quan-Haase, Western University
Please contact Andrew Nevin if you would like to join this research cluster and receive updates from our email list, or if you would like to add a member profile to our website.
Quick Links
October 23, 2024 - MediaSmarts' Annual Media Literacy Week Research Event
Best Student Paper Award
Each year the Internet, Technology, and Digital Sociology research cluster recognizes the best paper submitted by a graduate student on a topic related to the social implications of technology. Some topics of interest to cluster members include: digital access and inequality, digitally-mediated communication, how technology influences networks and relationships (e.g., professional, friendship, romantic), cyberbullying and cybercrime, the role of technology in teaching and education, online self-expression (e.g., identity, performativity), methodological considerations and the affordances of online data (including big data), and many others that focus on online spaces or the impacts of technological interventions in face-to-face environments. The ITDS Student Paper Award Competition invites paper submissions broadly in the areas identified above.
Learn More about the 2025 award and previous recipients
Conference Sessions
2025 Conference Sessions
Member Profiles
| Name | Affiliation | Research Interest | Connect |
| Michael ADORJAN |
Associate Professor - University of Calgary, Department of Sociology |
My research centers on internet-mediated conflict and harm among youth, and parental and educator understandings and responses to cyberbullying and other forms of conflict. | Academic Profile |
| Andrew D. NEVIN | Assistant Professor - University of Guelph, Department of Sociology & Anthropology | I am a digital sociologist who studies topics at the intersection of technology and society, including cyber-criminology, digital inequalities, technology use at work and home, online communities and relationships, among many others. | Academic Profile |
| Anabel QUAN-HAASE | Professor - Western University, Department of Sociology | My work focuses on social change, social media, and social networks. | Academic Profile |
| Kara BRISSON-BOIVIN | Director of Research - MediaSmarts; Adjunct Research Professor - Carleton University, Sociology and Anthropology | I am responsible for the planning, methodology, implementation, and dissemination of key findings from original MediaSmarts’ research studies as well as evaluations of MediaSmarts’ programs. | Academic Profile |
| Madelaine COELHO | PhD Student - University of Toronto, Department of Sociology | My research explores how technology is being used to both prevent and perpetrate forms of gender-based violence. | Personal Website |
| Sabreena DELHON | Executive Director - Samara Centre for Democracy; Fellow - Simon Fraser University’s Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue and Massey College | I have directed research studies that examine public perceptions of legal technology and the justice system. | Professional Profile |
| Jordan FAIRBAIRN | Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, King’s University College at Western University | My research takes place at the intersections of gender, violence, and media, with a focus on social responses to violence, news representation of intimate partner femicide, and the role of media in gender-based violence prevention. | Academic Profile |
| Dilshan FERNANDO | PhD Candidate - University of Guelph, Department of Sociology and Anthropology | I am an applied and clinical sociologist with broad research interests in disability, information and communication technology (ICT), and the future of work. | Academic Profile |
| Abu HAQUE | PhD Candidate - York University | My research interest lies in exploring the lived experiences of the margin within the everyday discursive practices of different social relations. | Personal Website |
| William HOLLINGSHEAD | PhD Student - Western University, Department of Sociology | Political discourse on social media; Online social movements; Imagined communities; Social media research methods | |
| Rui HOU | Postdoctoral Researcher - Toronto Metropolitan University, Daphne Cockwell School of Nursing | My research and teaching interests include Science and Technology Studies (STS), Digital Sociology, Surveillance Studies, Sociology of Emotions, Political Sociology, and Qualitative Methods. | Research Gate |
| Andey KASIMOV | PhD Candidate - McMaster University | I’m interested in the application of sociological theory and research methods to virtual contexts and the Internet as sources of information and communication. | Academic Profile |
| Milana LESKOVAC | PhD Student, Department of Sociology, Queen's University | Sociology of Knowledge; STS; Digital Sociology; Social Media; Digital Mediation; Influencers | |
| Zhifan LUO | Assistant Professor – McMaster University, Department of Sociology & Wilson College | Digital authoritarianism; Public sphere; Social media; Gender issues; Artificial intelligence | Connect |
| Samantha MCALEESE | Assistant Professor, Brock University, Department of Sociology – Critical Criminology Program; Adjunct Professor, Carleton University, Department of Sociology & Anthropology | Aspects of my research focus on digital stigma and digital punishment. I’m also interested in developing digital research methodologies and providing support for graduate students who are navigating the complexities of doing and disseminating research in online spaces. | Academic Profile |
| Kaitlynn MENDES | Associate Professor - Western University, Canada Research Chair in Inequality and Gender | My research and teaching adopt an intersectional feminist perspective to better understand and combat gender inequalities and their relationship with media technologies. | Academic Profile |
| Mohana MUKHERJEE | Visiting Assistant Professor - George Washington University, Department of Sociology | My research interests encompass restorative justice, education and technology, and the digital divide. | Research Gate |
| Nanditha NARAYANAMOORTHY | PhD Candidate - York University, Department of Humanities | My research employs critical discourse and network analysis to explore feminist and queer digital collectivities and counterpublics through digital protest in the Global South. | Personal Website |
| Terry NEWMAN | MA Student - Concordia University, Department of Sociology | Online communication; Political communication; Emergency alert systems; Online: imitation (Tarde); Degradation ceremonies (Garfinkel); Rituals (Durkheim); Moral panics (Cohen) | Academia |
| J OVERHOLSER | PhD Student - University of Calgary, Department of Sociology | Digital Sociology; Queer & Trans* Studies; Online Fan Culture & Fandom Studies; Construction of Gender; Queering Qualitative Research | Academic Profile |
| Molly-Gloria PATEL | College Professor - Okanagan College | Cyberbullying; Social and digital media; Youth/young adults, Digital forms of self-presentation; Deviance; Criminology | Academia |
| Monica PAULS | PhD Candidate - University of Calgary, Department of Sociology | My research interests include: youth social movements, online activism, social media and social change. | Academic Profile |
| Duncan PHILPOT | Assistant Professor - St. Thomas University, Department of Sociology | My research interests broadly encompass the relationship between crime and the media, with a focus on the intersections between crime, technology, and interactions. | Contact |
| Erin RATELLE | PhD Student - University of Alberta, Faculty of Kinesiology, Sport, and Recreation | My research interests include the intersections between sport, physical activity, health, and technology from sociocultural perspectives. | Academic Profile |
| Dylan REYNOLDS | Assistant Professor - Cape Breton University, Department of L’nu, Political and Social Studies | I am a sociologist interested in crime, victims, and social inequalities. | Academic Profile |
| Rosemary RICCIARDELLI | Professor - Memorial University, School of Marine Studies | My research centers on evolving understandings of gender, vulnerabilities, risk, and experiences and issues within different facets of the criminal justice system and among mariners. | Academic Profile |
| Alan SANINELE MARTINO | Assistant Professor - University of Calgary, Community Rehabilitation and Disability Studies | My main research interests are in critical disability studies, gender and sexualities; feminist and critical disability studies theories; qualitative and community-based research. | Personal Website |
| Richy SRIRACHANIKORN | PhD Student - Concordia University; Technoculture, Arts and Games (TAG) Research Center | Researching the nostalgic potential of video games, digital technologies, and media objects as affordances and markers of symbolically meaningful relationships forged by people living with extreme social withdrawal. | Personal Website |
| Mike ZAJKO | Assistant Professor - University of British Columbia – Okanagan Campus, Dept of History & Sociology | Internet & telecom policy; Surveillance studies; Artificial intelligence | Academic Profile |
| Jinman ZHANG | PhD Student - Western University, Faculty of Information & Media Studies | My research interests center around social media and digital feminist activism. | Academic Profile |
Mission Statement
The ITDS research cluster has been formed with the belief that technology is central to our understanding of contemporary social life. While sociologists commonly reference the fundamental shifts in social organization and relations stemming from the technologically-driven Industrial Revolution, there has been less of a focus in our discipline on the impacts arising from the Digital Revolution and proliferation of digital technologies in society. Much work on the latter has been treated as interdisciplinary or taken up by other fields including Communications and Information Science. We would like to emphasize its contribution as an important area of research specifically within sociology. Furthermore, for sociologists who currently do study such topics, they are often secondary focuses within other pillars of sociology, including race, class, gender, inequality and stratification, work and occupations, social networks, health, culture, criminology, political sociology, etc. The growing interest in internet/technology topics at the CSA in recent years has prompted the establishment of this research cluster to serve as a centralized location for sharing ideas among all sociologists interested in the internet, technology, and digital sociology in a way that reduces the current fragmentation of this discourse.
This cluster supports all research associated with the social implications of technology, broadly defined. Some topics of interest to cluster members include: digital access and inequality, digitally-mediated communication, how technology influences networks and relationships (e.g., professional, friendship, romantic), cyberbullying and cybercrime, the role of technology in teaching and education, online self-expression (e.g., identity, performativity), methodological considerations and the affordances of online data (including big data), and many others that focus on online spaces or the impacts of technological interventions in face-to-face environments.
There are three identified goals associated with this research cluster:
- Create a space for sharing ideas and resources among members interested in the social implications of internet/technology, while promoting the development of ITDS as an important area of sociological inquiry.
- Connect those who are interested in critically rethinking classical and contemporary sociological theory and methods in light of the internet and digital technologies. We aim to create a forum for critical discussion of the status of digital sociology and, more broadly, the historical impact of the internet and technology on sociological theory and methods.
- Facilitate networking, community building, and collaborating between members who share research and teaching interests. We also would like to support connections with other CSA research clusters and other international groups of technology scholars.
We plan to organize sessions at the annual meetings of the CSA that touch on a diverse set of topics and theoretical frameworks related to ITDS in order to formally accommodate and consolidate this increasing academic interest in ways that benefit the growth of this area in Canadian sociology. Additionally, we intend to provide a platform for members to determine the future of this research cluster and to foster new perspectives and developments in the sociological study of the internet and technology. We look forward to expanding our membership and meeting new interested scholars at York University for CSA 2023.
Footnote: The ITDS founding members were Andrew Nevin, Anabel Quan-Haase, and David Toews. The cluster’s inaugural business meeting and conference sessions took place during Congress at the University of British Columbia in June 2019.
News
Research Cluster News
Webinars