معرفی
Patrick McCurdy is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication at the Faculty of Arts, University of Ottawa. His research draws from media and communication, journalism, and social movement studies to view media as a site and source of social struggle. Since 2014, he has focused extensively on the polarized debate over the Athabasca oil sands and related environmental communication issues.
His primary research interests include:
- Greenwashing, Net Zero and Canadian Oil Culture
- Media strategies of civil society actors
- Representation of protest and civil society in the media
- Media events and the 'media eventisation' of society
- Consequences of living in a media-saturated society
- Public Broadcasting (CBC/BBC)
- Environmental Communication and Climate Change
Professor McCurdy has established a significant research profile with multiple publications in top journals across communication, environmental studies, and social movement fields. His work demonstrates consistent engagement with how media frames environmental challenges, particularly related to the oil sands industry and climate change discourse. He approaches these topics through multiple lenses including political communication, media theory, and social movement studies.
His notable achievements include:
- Winning SSHRC & Compute Canada's Human Dimensions Open Data Challenge for 'Mediatoil' (2016)
- Receiving the Early Researcher Award from the Faculty of Arts, University of Ottawa (2017, awarded 2018)
- Securing an April 2024 SSHRC Insight Grant with Chris Russill for 'Greenwashing and the Energy Transition: A Framework for Assessing Net Zero Communication in the Canadian Oil Sands Sector'
- Authoring the graphic novel 'The Beast: Making a Living on a Dying Planet' (2018)
Professor McCurdy serves as a Research Associate at Re.Climate, Carleton University (February 2024 - present) and teaches graduate and undergraduate courses including Research Methods, Theories and Effects of the Media, and Media and Social Movements. He has also co-authored 'Protest Camps' (Zed, 2013) and co-edited three books on protest movements and media.
