THEORIZING MEDIA + POPULAR CULTURE
The Centre for Media and Culture in Education (CMCE) seeks to foster critical inquiry and debate regarding cultural practices integral to everyday life in contemporary communities. The Centre supports research, university based programs of study, school and community education in regard to issues such as: cultural policy and funding, forms of representation and technologies of mediation, the educational implications of various forms of cultural practice, and the consequence of such practices in regard to the formation of just, equitable and sustainable societies. The Centre recognizes the importance of studying the specifics of, and inter-relations across, a range of practices and sites: film and video, digital media, television, photography, visual arts, drama, radio, musical performance, and material exhibition design as these practices are situated in schools, community centres, broadcast televison and radio, theatres, museums and galleries, new digital and print based media, festivals and concert halls. The Centre provides an intellectual environment for the development of the relation between theory and practice. Our mandate does not include, and our resources do not enable, entrance level training in cultural production. Faculty, students and staff who participate in Centre activities are drawn from various departments at the University of Toronto. As well, the Centre supports co-operative initiatives between the university and local, national, and international organizations devoted to promoting and exploring the social significance of cultural practices.