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Shelly Ungar |
| Office: | R5227 | Phone: | (416) 416-287-7299 |
In the 1990s I have done research on the nuclear arms race, global climate change, and emerging diseases. In all cases, my focus has been on real-world events that unleashed social scares or panics in society. Besides articles and a book on the arms race (The Rise and Fall of Nuclearism), I have published several articles on global warming and various other environmental issues. I have also published papers on international media reaction to the outbreak of Ebola in Zaire and on media coverage of "strange weather".
For the new millennium, I am shifting focus and plan to study knowledge and igorance among university students. While it has become commonplace to trash students for their ignorance, my research aims to identify what students actually know ("underground knowledge") and to develop a theoretical account of how popular culture and new media affect the holding of knowledge. While we are ostensibly living in a knowledge society, I am concerned with the unfolding of a knowledge-ignorance paradox -- the process by which exponential increases in (specialized) knowledges leaves all of us more and more ignorant. The general title of the project is "Icons and Gumpism: Why Cultural Literacy no Longer Matters".
Committees and other responsibilites
Academic Appeals Committee - Scarborough Campus