Lauren completed her Master of Arts at Queen’s University in Kingston in the Communication and Information Technology stream and is presently taking her Ph.D. in the Communication and Culture Program at York University in Toronto.
She has won a prestigious Social Sciences and Humanities Research Fellowship to fund her dissertation on technological mediated embodiment, cyber culture and computer games. Lauren also teaches undergraduate courses at York.
Over the past four years Lauren has traveled to England, Germany, Switzerland and Italy. She has maintained her involvement with Frontier College, practices yoga and is learning to play the guitar.
Lauren’s program at York is allied to the European Graduate School in Saas Fee, Switzerland which has provided her to work in person with some of the thinkers she has been studying since she was at Bishop’s. She writes: “…one morning I got to practice my rusty French over breakfast with Jean Baudrillard -- he likes Muesli!). Looking back, it is clear to me that my Sociology schooling continues to inform how I operate as a scholar, a teacher, a critical citizen and a committed people-watcher. The mentors I worked with in the department continue to be an inspiration to me. With every pensive beard-stroke or provocative comment Dr. Lustigman made, he invited his students into theory, and kept me enthusiastically coming back to classes, no matter my marks.
His challenge to us was to think as bravely, deeply, imaginatively and critically as we could. I still believe he must be channeling Socrates. Dr. Clark-Jones and Dr. Czernis first awakened my feminist mind and gave me tools to speak about the social phenomenon around me. They led amazing inquiries into nature, film, technology, epistemology, pedagogy, feminism... I learned so much! What amazing women to work with! As for Dr. Gerry Coulter, although I took a half-dozen courses with him and wrote my thesis under his guidance, I remember him mainly for fostering a belief in myself as a scholar.
The day I graduated from Bishop's, Gerry told me I was not to consider myself his former student, but a colleague. In my contact with him from Media 105 through to my doctoral work, this is exactly how Gerry has treated me.”
Contact Lauren by email:Lauren Cruikshank