About Us
About the Centre for Media & Culture in Education
The Centre for Media and Culture in Education supports interdisciplinary research and teaching agendas that advance ideals of social equity and justice. The CMCE promotes visionary and innovative media and cultural productions positioning us to imagine a different and better world. The Centre reaches out both locally and internationally, seeking connections, networks, relations and exchanges that enhance media, cultural and digital literacies and education.
Centre Director
Megan Boler is a Professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. In addition to being a member of the Department of Social Justice Education, Dr. Boler is an affiliate faculty member of Innis College, the Center for the Study of the United States, the Knowledge Media Design Institute, the Institute for Women and Gender Studies, and Cinema Studies. Funded extensively by the Canadian Social Science and Humanities Research Council since 2005, her mixed-methods studies have focused on the use of digital media technologies by pro-democracy social movement activists. Since 2017, her funded research has focused on the weaponization of affect and political polarization within social media. She has recently been awarded two major grants from the Canadian Heritage Digital Citizen Contribution Program: in 2021, to study online polarization and disinformation literacy (Boler et al, forthcoming 2025), and in 2024-25 for a project entitled “Queering Digital Tools Against Hate: Countering 2SLGBTQI Mis-/Disinformation with Community-Informed Digital Stories, Gamification, and Resources.” In partnership with the non-profit community organization Egale, Dr. Boler serves as PI of a large team of designers and researchers, utilizing qualitative research and user experience to produce gamified tools to counter online hate and disinformation targeting 2SLGBTQ+ communities. Finally, with a 2024-25 award from Inlight Student Mental Health Research, Dr. Boler is working with graduate students to produce a critical review of post-secondary students’ anxiety regarding AI. Her recent publications include Affective Politics of Digital Media: Propaganda By Other Means (Routledge: 2020), Boler, M. et al, Digital Affect Culture and the Logics of Melodrama: Online Polarization and the January 6 Capitol Riots through the Lens of Genre and Affective Discourse Analysis, in Social Media + Society, (2024); Azhar, A., & Boler, M. “Cruel, Convenient, and Intimate Publics: Berlant’s Lessons for Loneliness and Digital Media Commons,” in Media Theory, (2023).
Centre Graduate Assistant
Laura Rojas is a community-engaged artist, educator, and graphic designer, currently in her first year of the MEd Adult Education and Community Development program, with a collaborative specialization in Environmental Studies. Her work spans between Colombia and Canada, and centers on exploring topics related to diaspora and migration, popular education for social change, community-led agriculture, and arts-based learning. She is interested in using art and design as tools for education, mobilization, and social participation, as well as exploring how the arts can support community-building, strengthening our connections between each other and the world around us. She has worked as an educator with Enseña por Colombia, Fundación Iguaraya, and Vive La Cumbre, a community artist with MUSE Arts, Arts Etobicoke, Emotionart Collective, Carteros de la Noche, and Clic-Clac Collective, and with other organizations, artist collectives, and independent projects. She holds a BFA (Hons) from OCAD University’s Cross-Disciplinary Art program specializing in Publications.