Jonathan Sterne is a Professor at the Department of Art History and Communication Studies, McGill University. His work is broadly concerned with the form and role of communication technologies in large-scale societies. One of his major ongoing projects has been developing an adequate history and theory of sound in modernity. Beyond his work in sound and music his interests are in cultural studies of media, technology, science and medicine; “new” or “digital” media (though I’m not entirely comfortable with either term); cultural theory; disability studies; and the critique of everyday life.
Methodologically, he believes theoretical and empirical investigation are best intertwined. The majority of his published work is historical and document-based, but newer work also incorporates long-form interviews and participant observation. Alongside publishing in traditional academic venues, he has maintained an interest in new and alternative venues for scholarship that take advantage of emerging media forms–a problem now widely taken up under the “digital humanities” umbrella.