PhD, Florida
MA, Windsor
MA, Ottawa
BA, Windsor
Extension: 42946
Email: marcel@uwaterloo.ca
Biography
Dr. Marcel O’Gorman is a University Research Chair, Professor of English, and Founding Director of the Critical Media Lab (CML), where he teaches courses, leads collaborative projects, and directs workshops that combine research/creation and critical media studies.
O’Gorman has published widely about the impacts of technology, including his books E-Crit and Necromedia and articles in Slate, The Atlantic, and The Globe and Mail. He is also a digital artist with an international portfolio of exhibitions and performances. This experience guides the creative hands-on methods espoused by the Critical Media Lab and outlined in detail in his most recent book Making Media Theory: Thinking Critically with Technology. O’Gorman’s most recent research looks at how critical and inclusive design methods might help tackle some of the ethical and environmental issues faced by contemporary technoculture.
Selected publications
Monographs
Making Media Theory: Thinking Critically with Technology. New York: Bloomsbury, 2020.
Necromedia. University of Minnesota Press (Posthumanities Series), 2015.
E-Crit: Digital Media, Critical Theory and the Humanities. University of Toronto Press, 2005.
Recent Articles (academic and popular press)
"Adopt or Adapt: The AI Ultimatum," The Globe and Mail. May 10, 2025.
“Sociotechnical Context Mapping for Responsible Innovation Pedagogy and Ethical Design,” with Heather Love, Chris Rogers, Rebecca Sherlock, Sarah Casey. IEEE Ethics, May 2025.
“Fostering Responsible Innovation with Critical Design methods,” with Alexi Orchard. Journal of Responsible Innovation, February 16, 2023.
“Paying Attention to Biodiversity Apps,” The Globe and Mail. June 22, 2024.
“Revisiting the Pharmakon: Why Media Theory Needs Queer Theory.” Media Theory, December 19, 2022.
Recent Art, Design, Curation
“Nestcraft,” Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery, 2025
“Liminowlity,” Stauffer Gallery, Arizona State University, 2023
See additional work at: http://marcelogorman.net.
Fellowships & Awards
- 2018 - SSHRC Connection Grant: “Conference of the Society for Literature, Science and the Arts"
- 2017 - University Research Chair
- 2016 - SSHRC Insight Grant: “Digital Abstinence: The Art, Philosophy, and Politics of Unplugging"
- 2016 - Canada Foundation for Innovation Grant: "Critical Prototyping Suite"
- 2010 - SSHRC Research/Creation Grant: “The Techno-Pharmakon"
- 2009 - SSHRC Standard Research Grant: “Necromedia"
- 2008 - Canada Foundation for Innovation Grant, 2008 "Visualization and Biotelematics Environment"
Current research
While my research may be thematically driven it always moves across disciplines. For example, my current project on “Digital Abstinence” involves designing digital art installations and performances, interviewing Old Order Mennonites, shaping device usage policies at school boards, and conducting research on “mind wandering” with a Cognitive Psychology lab. This means that any given time I am working on several projects with a number of collaborators from diverse disciplines and communities. My future research plans include a more intense focus on “digital rituals,” which ranges from behaviours learned from persuasive interfaces to algorithmic rituals that determine who or what is in control of an individual’s data. This research stems from my interest in how embodiment intersects with automation. I will also continue to work on the Tech for Good initiative with Communitech and Deloitte, developing workshops, tools, and policies to help tech companies integrate ethics more carefully into their organizations.
Areas of graduate supervision
- Critical Media Studies
- Philosophy of Technology
- Research/Creation Methods
- Digital Art and Design
- Science and Technology Studies
- Environmental Humanities
- Queer Theory
- New Materialism and Posthumanism
- Animal and “more-than-human” studies