Colleen McLay (BFA, M.Ed., 1st year PhD student)

Department of Sociology & Equity Studies in Education, OISE/UT

"The power to narrate, or to block other narratives from forming and emerging, is very important to culture and imperialism, and constitutes one of the main connections between them" (Edward W. Said, Culture & Imperialism, 1994: xiii).

I'm currently researching the use of censorware in Canadian educational institutions, and paying particular attention to narratives used to justify increasing censorship and surveillance, as these two seemingly disparate projects are ideologically and practically intertwined.  For my 5-7 minutes, I'll be looking at two normalized statements ("If you're against surveillance of any kind, you're either paranoid or have something to hide," and "If you don't want more censorship on the internet, you support child pornography") and talking about some of the ways activists have circumnavigated those pre-set debates which pathologize, psychiatrize or criminalize dissent. 

An elder activist friend of mine once told me that if you agree to use the terms your opponent lays out for you, you've already lost, and this piece of advice guides my attempt to think around moral panics and single-issue rhetorical politics.  For example, I choose to use the word "censorware" to refer to the bundle-packages of filtering and 'accountability' (tracking) software.

I'm excited about the un-ness of this conference, and look forward to talking with you!