Programs

Education

B.A. (Concordia); M.A. (McGill); Ph.D. (McGill)

Biography

Professor Mason joined Ryerson's Faculty of Communication and Design and the Department of Professional Communication in 2006. She was previously a faculty member at University of Toronto. Jean Mason is currently conducting a major research study (SSHRC funded) on tuberculosis narratives and health communication. This study examines the way TB patients used written self-expression to build a highly successful therapeutic community in pre-pharmacological era of tuberculosis sanatoria, and explores applications in contemporary settings. Prior to studying health narratives, her doctoral research focused on the process of self-expression in digital hypermedia. You can learn more about Prof. Mason by visiting her website http://www.jeanmason.ca.

Research Interest

The way that communication constitutes culture:  writing media and technologies, health communication, personal narrative, professional and organizational communication, complexity theory, ways of knowing and the politics of methodologies, qualitative methods especially narrative and arts-based inquiry.

Selected Publications

“The Discourse of Disease: Patient Writing at the University of Tuberculosis” chapter in Psychoanalysis and Narrative Medicine (in press, 2006 SUNY Albany Press; editors: Dr. Rita Charon MD, PhD, Columbia University and Dr. Peter Rudnytsky, PhD, University of Florida at Gainesville.)

Ars Medica, Vol. 1, October 2004 “Tuberculosis as Muse: Three Poets on North America’s Magic Mountain”

From Gutenberg’s Galaxy to Cyberspace: The Transforming Power of Electronic Hypertext Toronto:  CITD Press – University of Toronto e-book, 2002.