Shirley Roburn
Department of Communication & Media Studies
Assistant Professor
Office: Victor Phillip Dahdaleh Building, 3018
Phone: (416) 736-2100 Ext: 20468
Email: saroburn@yorku.ca
Attached CV
Degrees
PhD in Communication Studies, Concordia UniversityMES, Environmental Studies, York University
BA in Communication Studies, Concordia University
Professional Leadership
Member, Association for Literature, Environment, and Culture in Canada Executive, 2016-2018
Board President, Centre for Community Organization (CoCo), 2008-2010
PhD Student Representative, Concordia Communication Studies, 2007-2009
Executive Director, Yukon Conservation Society (YCS), 2005-2006
Community Contributions
Reviewer for Imaginations Journal of Cross-Cultural Image Studies, 2017
Reviewer for ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, 2016
Reviewer for special issue of Wi: Journal of Mobile Media, 2015-2016
Roburn, Shirley. "Innis and Environmental Politics: Practical Insights from the Yukon," in Buxton,
William Ed. Harold Innis and the Canadian North: Appraisals and Contestations. Montreal: McGill-
Queens University Press, 2013. 295-325
Roburn, Shirley. “Sounding a Sea-Change: Acoustic Ecology and Arctic Ocean Governance,” in Chen, Cecelia, Janine MacLeod and Astrida Neimanis Eds. Thinking With Water. Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press, 2013. 106-128
Ottoni, Eduardo, Shirley Roburn and Chris Wulff. An Ethnobotany of the UBC Arboretum. Monograph.
Vancouver: 1995. 150 pages. This work was adapted to the web and used in teaching undergraduate biology courses at UBC into the mid-2000s.
Roburn, Shirley. “Power From the North: the Energized Trajectory of Indigenous Sovereignty Movements.” Canadian Journal of Communication. 43.1 (2018): 167-184
Roburn, Shirley. “Beyond Film Impact Assessment: Being Caribou Community Screenings as Activist
Training Grounds.” International Journal of Communication 11 (2017): 2520-2539.
Roburn, Shirley. “Reflections from the Final International Polar Year Conference." TOPIA: Canadian
Journal of Cultural Studies 32 (2014). 253-263
Roburn, Shirley and Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in Heritage Department. “Weathering Changes: Growing Local
and Traditional Knowledge of Environmental Change in Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in Traditional Territory.”
Arctic. Vol.65, No.4. (2012): 439-455
Roburn, Shirley. "Chlorine Conflicts." Alternatives. 29.2 (2003): 26
Roburn, Shirley. "Literacy and the Underdevelopment of Knowledge." Mediatribe: Concordia
University's Undergraduate Journal of Communication Studies. 4.1 (1994).
Patel, Seema and Shirley Roburn (co-authors). A Guide to Resources in Sustainable Food and Transportation Systems. Toronto, Canada: Greenest City, 1998.
Patel, Seema and Shirley Roburn (co-authors). Feeding the City from the Back Forty: Case Studies in Regional and Urban Food Production. Toronto, Canada: Greenest City, 1998.
“Beyond the Blackfish Effect: Rethinking Film Impact Frameworks." Society for Cinema and Media Studies 2017 Conference. Chicago, USA. March 22, 2017.
“Remediating the Salish Sea: Hacking Surveillance Technologies to Promote Ocean Conservation.” Canadian Communications Association Annual Conference. Toronto, Canada. June 2nd, 2017.
“Where Oil and Water Don’t Mix: Some Notes on Harold Innis, Economic Resurgence, and Coastal First Nations Communities in British Columbia.” Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment Twelfth Biennial Conference Rust/Resistance; Works of Recovery. Detroit, USA. June 24th, 2017.
“A Whale of a Tale: the Story of Skana.” Popular Culture Association of Canada Conference. Montreal, Canada. May 13th, 2016.
“From “Our Common Future” to “Climate Justice”: Some Notes on Two Generations of Canadian Youth Environmental Justice Organizing.” Making Common Causes: Crises, Conflict, Creation, Conversation. The Association for Literature, Environment, and Culture in Canada Biannual Conference. Kingston, Canada. June 16, 2016.
“A Long March to the Capital: Bringing Rural Alaskan and Gwich’in Stories to Bear on Congressional Decision Makers.” In Unsettling Frontier Logics: Re-imaging and Re-inhabiting Rural-Capital Relations. A Joint Panel of the Canadian Communications Association and the Environmental Studies Association of Canada at the Congress 2015 of the Humanities and Social Sciences.
Ottawa, Canada. June 3, 2015.
“Building Social Movement Leadership Through Translocal Storytelling: Protecting the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Through ‘Caribou Stories.’ International Association for Media and Communication Research Conference. Montreal, Canada. July 15, 2015.
“Ecocinema, Convergence Culture and Community Organizing: Assessing the Impact of Being Caribou on Congressional Votes to Develop or Preserve the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.” Society of Cinema and Media Studies 2015 Conference. Montreal, Canada. March 25, 2015.
“Scaling Deep: Ecocinema as a Tool for Building Social Movement Leadership.” Association for the Study of Literature and Environment Eleventh Biennial Conference, Notes from Underground: The Depths of Environmental Arts, Culture, and Justice. Moscow, USA. June 25, 2015.
“Taking it “Glocal”: Bringing Northern Community Voices to Global Civil Society Campaigns on Energy and Climate Change,” ArcticNet 2015 Annual Scientific Meeting. Vancouver, Canada. December 10th, 2015.
“Taking the Long View: Calving Grounds Advocacy in the Anthropocene.” Under Western Skies 2014, Calgary, Canada. September 9, 2014.
“Being Caribou: A Case Study in Transboundary Migration, Media Circulation, and Recursive Political Organizing.” Canadian Communications Association Annual Conference, Victoria, Canada. June 6, 2013.
“Being Caribou: a Story of Transboundary Migration.” Differential Mobilities: Movement and Mediation in Networked Societies –an International Conference of the Mobile Media Lab. Montreal, Canada. May 10, 2013.
“From Vadzaih googii vi dehk'it gwanlii (the Sacred Place Where Life Begins) to Washington: Tracing the Journey of the Being Caribou Expedition.” Communication and Global Power Shifts: An International Conference in Celebration of the 40th Anniversary of the School of Communication, Simon Fraser University. Vancouver, Canada. June 9, 2013.
“Sifting, Shifting: Learning the Ways of a River” Association for Literature, Environment, and Culture in Canada 2012 Biennial Conference: Space+ Memory = Place. Kelowna, Canada. August 11, 2012.
“Weathering Changes: Growing Local and Traditional Knowledge of Environmental Change in Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in Traditional Territory.” From Knowledge to Action: International Polar Year 2012 Conference, Montreal, Canada. April 24, 2012.
“The Being Caribou Expedition: A Case Study in Transboundary Migration, Media Circulation, and Recursive Political Organizing” Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment Ninth Biennial Conference: Species, Spaces, and the Imagination of the Global. Bloomington, USA. June 22, 2011.
"Whalesong and the Sound of the World," Green Words/Green Worlds: Environmental Literatures and Politics in Canada. York University Environmental Studies and the Sustainable Writing Lab.
Toronto, Canada. October 22, 2011.
"A Sea Change in Ocean Governance: Incorporating Acoustic Territories." Thinking With Water Workshop (SSHRC sponsored). Montreal, Canada. June 21-23, 2010
"Sound and Sense: the Call of Wild Language." Canadian Communications Association 2010 Conference. Montreal, Canada. June 1, 2010.
"Sound, Sense, and Storytelling: the Call of Wild Language." Joint PhD in Communication Graduate Colloque, Université de Montréal, Montreal, Canada. November 5, 2010.
"Sound, Sense, and Storytelling: the Call of Wild Language." Association for Literature, Environmental and Culture in Canada inaugural conference. Sydney, Canada. Aug 21, 2010.
"Sound, Sense, Storytelling and Governance: the Call of Wild Language.” Under Western Skies: Climate, Culture, and Change in Western North America, Calgary, Canada. October 14, 2010.
"A Sea Change in Ocean Governance: Incorporating Acoustic Territories." Northern Heterotopias Fourth Annual Aboriginal and Northern Studies Conference. The Pas, Canada. June 5, 2009.
"A Sea Change in Ocean Governance: Incorporating Acoustic Territories." Canadian Communications Association 2009 Conference, Ottawa, Canada. May 30, 2009.
"A Sea Change in Ocean Governance: Incorporating Acoustic Territories." 9th Association of Canadian Universities for Northern Studies Student Conference on Northern Studies and Polar Regions. Whitehorse, Canada. Oct 2, 2009.
""Glocal" Tactical Trajectories: the Case of Spartacus Books." Canadian Communications Association 2008 Conference. Vancouver, Canada. June 5, 2008.
“Spartacus Books: A Tactical Trajectory.” Memory as Medium: Experience, Exchange, Representation. 3rd Annual Conference of the Communication Graduate Caucus, School of Journalism and Communication, Carleton University. Ottawa, Canada. March 14, 2008.
“The Being Caribou Project: Local Stories, International Policy, and Grassroots Civil Society — a Case Study" International Arctic Change 2008 Conference, Quebec City, Canada, December 10, 2008.
"The Being Caribou Project: Local Stories, International Policy, and Grassroots Civil Society — a Case Study." 5th Open Assembly of the Northern Research Forum: Seeking Balance in a Changing North. Anchorage, USA. September 25, 2008.
"Innis and Environmental Politics: Practical Insights from the Yukon." Melting Boundaries: Carrying Out Effective Research in the Circumpolar World, 8th International Student Conference on Northern Studies. Saskatoon, Canada. October 18-21, 2007.
"Innis and Environmental Politics: Practical Insights from the Yukon." Innis and the North Workshop (SSHRC sponsored). Montreal, Canada. August 15-17, 2007.
"Reducing Food Miles: Theory and Practice." Workshop co-presented with Seema Patel. 1999 Joint Meeting of the Agriculture, Food, and Human Values Society (AFHVS), the Association for the Study of Food and Society (ASFS) and the Food Choice Group. Toronto, Canada. June 3-6, 1999.
"GIS, Digital Data, and the Myth of Eternal Return." Environmental Studies Association of Canada Conference. Ottawa, Canada. June 2-5, 1998,
Roburn, Shirley. “Learning from Caribou People: Gwich’in and Inuvialuit Perspectives on the Being Caribou Project.” Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature & Environment
Degrees
PhD in Communication Studies, Concordia UniversityMES, Environmental Studies, York University
BA in Communication Studies, Concordia University
Professional Leadership
Member, Association for Literature, Environment, and Culture in Canada Executive, 2016-2018
Board President, Centre for Community Organization (CoCo), 2008-2010
PhD Student Representative, Concordia Communication Studies, 2007-2009
Executive Director, Yukon Conservation Society (YCS), 2005-2006
Community Contributions
Reviewer for Imaginations Journal of Cross-Cultural Image Studies, 2017
Reviewer for ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, 2016
Reviewer for special issue of Wi: Journal of Mobile Media, 2015-2016
All Publications
Roburn, Shirley. "Innis and Environmental Politics: Practical Insights from the Yukon," in Buxton,
William Ed. Harold Innis and the Canadian North: Appraisals and Contestations. Montreal: McGill-
Queens University Press, 2013. 295-325
Roburn, Shirley. “Sounding a Sea-Change: Acoustic Ecology and Arctic Ocean Governance,” in Chen, Cecelia, Janine MacLeod and Astrida Neimanis Eds. Thinking With Water. Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press, 2013. 106-128
Ottoni, Eduardo, Shirley Roburn and Chris Wulff. An Ethnobotany of the UBC Arboretum. Monograph.
Vancouver: 1995. 150 pages. This work was adapted to the web and used in teaching undergraduate biology courses at UBC into the mid-2000s.
Roburn, Shirley. “Power From the North: the Energized Trajectory of Indigenous Sovereignty Movements.” Canadian Journal of Communication. 43.1 (2018): 167-184
Roburn, Shirley. “Beyond Film Impact Assessment: Being Caribou Community Screenings as Activist
Training Grounds.” International Journal of Communication 11 (2017): 2520-2539.
Roburn, Shirley. “Reflections from the Final International Polar Year Conference." TOPIA: Canadian
Journal of Cultural Studies 32 (2014). 253-263
Roburn, Shirley and Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in Heritage Department. “Weathering Changes: Growing Local
and Traditional Knowledge of Environmental Change in Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in Traditional Territory.”
Arctic. Vol.65, No.4. (2012): 439-455
Roburn, Shirley. "Chlorine Conflicts." Alternatives. 29.2 (2003): 26
Roburn, Shirley. "Literacy and the Underdevelopment of Knowledge." Mediatribe: Concordia
University's Undergraduate Journal of Communication Studies. 4.1 (1994).
Patel, Seema and Shirley Roburn (co-authors). A Guide to Resources in Sustainable Food and Transportation Systems. Toronto, Canada: Greenest City, 1998.
Patel, Seema and Shirley Roburn (co-authors). Feeding the City from the Back Forty: Case Studies in Regional and Urban Food Production. Toronto, Canada: Greenest City, 1998.
“Beyond the Blackfish Effect: Rethinking Film Impact Frameworks." Society for Cinema and Media Studies 2017 Conference. Chicago, USA. March 22, 2017.
“Remediating the Salish Sea: Hacking Surveillance Technologies to Promote Ocean Conservation.” Canadian Communications Association Annual Conference. Toronto, Canada. June 2nd, 2017.
“Where Oil and Water Don’t Mix: Some Notes on Harold Innis, Economic Resurgence, and Coastal First Nations Communities in British Columbia.” Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment Twelfth Biennial Conference Rust/Resistance; Works of Recovery. Detroit, USA. June 24th, 2017.
“A Whale of a Tale: the Story of Skana.” Popular Culture Association of Canada Conference. Montreal, Canada. May 13th, 2016.
“From “Our Common Future” to “Climate Justice”: Some Notes on Two Generations of Canadian Youth Environmental Justice Organizing.” Making Common Causes: Crises, Conflict, Creation, Conversation. The Association for Literature, Environment, and Culture in Canada Biannual Conference. Kingston, Canada. June 16, 2016.
“A Long March to the Capital: Bringing Rural Alaskan and Gwich’in Stories to Bear on Congressional Decision Makers.” In Unsettling Frontier Logics: Re-imaging and Re-inhabiting Rural-Capital Relations. A Joint Panel of the Canadian Communications Association and the Environmental Studies Association of Canada at the Congress 2015 of the Humanities and Social Sciences.
Ottawa, Canada. June 3, 2015.
“Building Social Movement Leadership Through Translocal Storytelling: Protecting the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Through ‘Caribou Stories.’ International Association for Media and Communication Research Conference. Montreal, Canada. July 15, 2015.
“Ecocinema, Convergence Culture and Community Organizing: Assessing the Impact of Being Caribou on Congressional Votes to Develop or Preserve the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.” Society of Cinema and Media Studies 2015 Conference. Montreal, Canada. March 25, 2015.
“Scaling Deep: Ecocinema as a Tool for Building Social Movement Leadership.” Association for the Study of Literature and Environment Eleventh Biennial Conference, Notes from Underground: The Depths of Environmental Arts, Culture, and Justice. Moscow, USA. June 25, 2015.
“Taking it “Glocal”: Bringing Northern Community Voices to Global Civil Society Campaigns on Energy and Climate Change,” ArcticNet 2015 Annual Scientific Meeting. Vancouver, Canada. December 10th, 2015.
“Taking the Long View: Calving Grounds Advocacy in the Anthropocene.” Under Western Skies 2014, Calgary, Canada. September 9, 2014.
“Being Caribou: A Case Study in Transboundary Migration, Media Circulation, and Recursive Political Organizing.” Canadian Communications Association Annual Conference, Victoria, Canada. June 6, 2013.
“Being Caribou: a Story of Transboundary Migration.” Differential Mobilities: Movement and Mediation in Networked Societies –an International Conference of the Mobile Media Lab. Montreal, Canada. May 10, 2013.
“From Vadzaih googii vi dehk'it gwanlii (the Sacred Place Where Life Begins) to Washington: Tracing the Journey of the Being Caribou Expedition.” Communication and Global Power Shifts: An International Conference in Celebration of the 40th Anniversary of the School of Communication, Simon Fraser University. Vancouver, Canada. June 9, 2013.
“Sifting, Shifting: Learning the Ways of a River” Association for Literature, Environment, and Culture in Canada 2012 Biennial Conference: Space+ Memory = Place. Kelowna, Canada. August 11, 2012.
“Weathering Changes: Growing Local and Traditional Knowledge of Environmental Change in Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in Traditional Territory.” From Knowledge to Action: International Polar Year 2012 Conference, Montreal, Canada. April 24, 2012.
“The Being Caribou Expedition: A Case Study in Transboundary Migration, Media Circulation, and Recursive Political Organizing” Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment Ninth Biennial Conference: Species, Spaces, and the Imagination of the Global. Bloomington, USA. June 22, 2011.
"Whalesong and the Sound of the World," Green Words/Green Worlds: Environmental Literatures and Politics in Canada. York University Environmental Studies and the Sustainable Writing Lab.
Toronto, Canada. October 22, 2011.
"A Sea Change in Ocean Governance: Incorporating Acoustic Territories." Thinking With Water Workshop (SSHRC sponsored). Montreal, Canada. June 21-23, 2010
"Sound and Sense: the Call of Wild Language." Canadian Communications Association 2010 Conference. Montreal, Canada. June 1, 2010.
"Sound, Sense, and Storytelling: the Call of Wild Language." Joint PhD in Communication Graduate Colloque, Université de Montréal, Montreal, Canada. November 5, 2010.
"Sound, Sense, and Storytelling: the Call of Wild Language." Association for Literature, Environmental and Culture in Canada inaugural conference. Sydney, Canada. Aug 21, 2010.
"Sound, Sense, Storytelling and Governance: the Call of Wild Language.” Under Western Skies: Climate, Culture, and Change in Western North America, Calgary, Canada. October 14, 2010.
"A Sea Change in Ocean Governance: Incorporating Acoustic Territories." Northern Heterotopias Fourth Annual Aboriginal and Northern Studies Conference. The Pas, Canada. June 5, 2009.
"A Sea Change in Ocean Governance: Incorporating Acoustic Territories." Canadian Communications Association 2009 Conference, Ottawa, Canada. May 30, 2009.
"A Sea Change in Ocean Governance: Incorporating Acoustic Territories." 9th Association of Canadian Universities for Northern Studies Student Conference on Northern Studies and Polar Regions. Whitehorse, Canada. Oct 2, 2009.
""Glocal" Tactical Trajectories: the Case of Spartacus Books." Canadian Communications Association 2008 Conference. Vancouver, Canada. June 5, 2008.
“Spartacus Books: A Tactical Trajectory.” Memory as Medium: Experience, Exchange, Representation. 3rd Annual Conference of the Communication Graduate Caucus, School of Journalism and Communication, Carleton University. Ottawa, Canada. March 14, 2008.
“The Being Caribou Project: Local Stories, International Policy, and Grassroots Civil Society — a Case Study" International Arctic Change 2008 Conference, Quebec City, Canada, December 10, 2008.
"The Being Caribou Project: Local Stories, International Policy, and Grassroots Civil Society — a Case Study." 5th Open Assembly of the Northern Research Forum: Seeking Balance in a Changing North. Anchorage, USA. September 25, 2008.
"Innis and Environmental Politics: Practical Insights from the Yukon." Melting Boundaries: Carrying Out Effective Research in the Circumpolar World, 8th International Student Conference on Northern Studies. Saskatoon, Canada. October 18-21, 2007.
"Innis and Environmental Politics: Practical Insights from the Yukon." Innis and the North Workshop (SSHRC sponsored). Montreal, Canada. August 15-17, 2007.
"Reducing Food Miles: Theory and Practice." Workshop co-presented with Seema Patel. 1999 Joint Meeting of the Agriculture, Food, and Human Values Society (AFHVS), the Association for the Study of Food and Society (ASFS) and the Food Choice Group. Toronto, Canada. June 3-6, 1999.
"GIS, Digital Data, and the Myth of Eternal Return." Environmental Studies Association of Canada Conference. Ottawa, Canada. June 2-5, 1998,
Roburn, Shirley. “Learning from Caribou People: Gwich’in and Inuvialuit Perspectives on the Being Caribou Project.” Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature & Environment
