Education
Greg Elmer was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy in Communication from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2000.
author of Profiling Machines Professor of Radio
Greg Elmer was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy in Communication from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2000.
Doctor Elmer is an internet researcher and documentary film maker whose work focuses on theories of surveillance, social protest, political communication, and media financialization. He is author of Profiling Machines: Mapping the Personal Information Economy (Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press: 2004) and with Andy Opel "Preempting Dissent" (ARP Press: 2008), "Infrastructure Critical" (with A Renzi, ARP Press: 2012) and The Permanent Campaign: New Media New Politics (w/ G Langlois & F McKelvey, Peter Language 2012) in addition to two other edited books, and a number of articles and book chapters. Professor Elmer previously held faculty appointments in the Department of Communication at the University of Pittsburgh (1999–2000), Boston College (2000–2003), and Florida State University (2003–2004).
Doctor Elmer is also adjunct Professor at York University (Toronto).
He previously served as a research director at the Webometrics Research Institute, Yeungnam University, South of Korea. In the fall of 2006 Professor Elmer, along with a number of graduate students at the Infoscape Research Laboratory at Ryerson University in Toronto initiated the Code Politics Project, the first comprehensive study of the internet in Canadian politics.
The lab"s key researchers/graduate students include Zach Devereaux, Ganaele Langlois, Fenwick McKelvey, Peter Ryan, and Brady Curlew. Research from the project has also been highlighted on Canadian Broadcasting Company, CPAC, Global, CTV Newsnet, Canadian Broadcasting Company Radio Canada, the Globe and Mail, and the Toronto Star.
In the spring of 2007 Doctor Elmer was visiting faculty fellow at the Virtual Knowledge Studio, Royal Dutch Academy of Social Sciences, Amsterdam.
He has also received fellowships from the Social Science Research Council (New York City) and the Quebec government"s FCAR agency. In the summer 2006 he was awarded a three year research grant from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada. In 2009 Professor Elmer was awarded two three-year research grants from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).
And in 2012 his research team was awarded a 5 year SSHRC grant to study theories of methods for social media.
In October, 2007 Greg Elmer joined the Canadian political newspaper The Hill Times as a regular columnist. During the 2008 federal election professor Elmer served as a consultant and commentator for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation"s coverage of the internet campaign.
In 2009-2010 Doctor Elmer was awarded visiting research fellowships at the University of Manchester, Anglia Ruskin University, and the London School of Economics. In 2013-2014 he served as faculty fellow in the department of media and communications, Goldsmiths College, University of London.
Research reports from the project have become weekly readings for journalists, members of Parliament, political staff, and other communications and government relations employees in Ontario and across Canada.