Rob Heynen

Department of Communication & Media Studies
Associate Professor
Undergraduate Program Director
Office: Victor Phillip Dahdaleh (DB) Building, 3040
Phone: (416)736-2100 Ext: 77405
Email: comnupd@yorku.ca
Media Requests Welcome
Accepting New Graduate Students
Professor Heynen’s research interests are in surveillance studies, radical culture and politics, theories of media and culture, media history (in particular early photography and film), and the politics of the body. His earlier work focused especially on the radical culture of the Weimar period in Germany, and he continues to write on histories of visual culture and radical politics. Current research projects include a study of biometric surveillance, and a critical analysis of the ‘new eugenics’ and the rise of the right.
Degrees
PhD, Social & Political Thought, York UniversityMA, History, University of Alberta
BA, History and Political Science, McGill University
Research Interests
Heynen, Robert and Emily van der Meulen, eds. (2019). Making Surveillance States: Transnational Histories. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Heynen, Robert (2019). The German Revolution and the Reshaping of the Radical Right. In J. Muldoon, ed., The German Revolution and Political Theory. London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 3-32
van der Meulen, Emily and Robert Heynen (2019). Unpacking State Surveillance: Histories, Theories, and Global Contexts. In R. Heynen and E. van der Meulen, eds., Making Surveillance States: Transnational Histories. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, pp. 3-30.
Heynen, Robert and Emily van der Meulen (2016). ‘Gendered Visions: Reimagining Surveillance Studies,’ in van der Meulen and Heynen, eds., Expanding the Gaze: Gender and the Politics of Surveillance. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Heynen, Robert (2020). Biometric Aesthetics: Towards a Critical Theory of the Biometric Body. Public: Art, Culture, Ideas 60 (special issue on ‘Biometrics: Mediating Bodies’): 108-125.
Heynen, Robert (2018). ‘Cultures of Confinement: Health, Illness, and Madness in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and The Magic Mountain.’ Modernism/Modernity 25(4): 683-708.
Heynen, Robert (2016). ‘From Science to Fashion: Photography and the Production of a Surrogate Colony in Weimar Germany,’ History of Photography. 40(2).
Durisin, Elya and Robert Heynen (2016). ‘Producing the “Trafficked Woman”: Canadian Newspaper Reporting on Eastern European Exotic Dancers During the 1990s,’ Atlantis: Critical Studies in Gender, Culture, and Social Justice. 37(2).
Wright, Jordana, Robert Heynen, and Emily van der Meulen (2015). ‘“It depends on who you are, what you are”: ‘Community Safety’ and Sex Workers’ Experience with Surveillance,’ Surveillance & Society 13(2), pp. 265-282.
De Shalit, Ann, Robert Heynen, and Emily van der Meulen (2014). ‘Human Trafficking and Media Myths: Federal Funding, Communication Strategies, and Canadian Anti-Trafficking Programs,’ Canadian Journal of Communication 39(3), pp. 385-412.
Heynen, Robert (2012). ‘Socialism from the Right? Aesthetics, Politics and the Counter-Revolution in Weimar Germany,’ New Formations 75, pp. 82-98.
Heynen, Robert (2000). ‘Making Soviet Nations,’ Socialist Studies Bulletin 60, pp. 5-26.
Professor Heynen’s research interests are in surveillance studies, radical culture and politics, theories of media and culture, media history (in particular early photography and film), and the politics of the body. His earlier work focused especially on the radical culture of the Weimar period in Germany, and he continues to write on histories of visual culture and radical politics. Current research projects include a study of biometric surveillance, and a critical analysis of the ‘new eugenics’ and the rise of the right.
Degrees
PhD, Social & Political Thought, York UniversityMA, History, University of Alberta
BA, History and Political Science, McGill University
Research Interests
All Publications
Heynen, Robert (2019). The German Revolution and the Reshaping of the Radical Right. In J. Muldoon, ed., The German Revolution and Political Theory. London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 3-32
van der Meulen, Emily and Robert Heynen (2019). Unpacking State Surveillance: Histories, Theories, and Global Contexts. In R. Heynen and E. van der Meulen, eds., Making Surveillance States: Transnational Histories. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, pp. 3-30.
Heynen, Robert and Emily van der Meulen (2016). ‘Gendered Visions: Reimagining Surveillance Studies,’ in van der Meulen and Heynen, eds., Expanding the Gaze: Gender and the Politics of Surveillance. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Heynen, Robert and Emily van der Meulen, eds. (2019). Making Surveillance States: Transnational Histories. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Heynen, Robert (2020). Biometric Aesthetics: Towards a Critical Theory of the Biometric Body. Public: Art, Culture, Ideas 60 (special issue on ‘Biometrics: Mediating Bodies’): 108-125.
Heynen, Robert (2018). ‘Cultures of Confinement: Health, Illness, and Madness in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and The Magic Mountain.’ Modernism/Modernity 25(4): 683-708.
Heynen, Robert (2016). ‘From Science to Fashion: Photography and the Production of a Surrogate Colony in Weimar Germany,’ History of Photography. 40(2).
Durisin, Elya and Robert Heynen (2016). ‘Producing the “Trafficked Woman”: Canadian Newspaper Reporting on Eastern European Exotic Dancers During the 1990s,’ Atlantis: Critical Studies in Gender, Culture, and Social Justice. 37(2).
Wright, Jordana, Robert Heynen, and Emily van der Meulen (2015). ‘“It depends on who you are, what you are”: ‘Community Safety’ and Sex Workers’ Experience with Surveillance,’ Surveillance & Society 13(2), pp. 265-282.
De Shalit, Ann, Robert Heynen, and Emily van der Meulen (2014). ‘Human Trafficking and Media Myths: Federal Funding, Communication Strategies, and Canadian Anti-Trafficking Programs,’ Canadian Journal of Communication 39(3), pp. 385-412.
Heynen, Robert (2012). ‘Socialism from the Right? Aesthetics, Politics and the Counter-Revolution in Weimar Germany,’ New Formations 75, pp. 82-98.
Heynen, Robert (2000). ‘Making Soviet Nations,’ Socialist Studies Bulletin 60, pp. 5-26.