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A close-up headshot of John Shiga in a gray blazer and light purple shirt. He smiles at the camera with short dark hair.

John Shiga

Graduate Program Director for PhD in Media Design and Innovation, Professor

Biography

John Shiga is a Professor in the School of Professional Communication at The Creative School. He teaches courses on multimodal communication, cross-cultural communication, knowledge translation, science communication, information and control, and communication for social change. He has published widely in the fields of media studies, legal studies, sound studies and environmental humanities. His current research and creative projects focus on the politics of underwater sound and nuclear imperialism in the context of the Cold War.

  • Sound studies

  • Sonic media

  • Sonic cartography

  • Sonification

  • Media archaeology

  • Interspecies communication

  • Sound and law

  • Sonar

  • Environmental media

  • Environmental humanities

  • Underwater sound

  • Cold War studies

  • Nuclear imperialism

  • Media theory

  • Science communication

  • Critical infrastructure studies

  • Shiga, J. (2025). Review of Echo by A. Pinchevski (2023). Journal of Interdisciplinary Voice Studies, 9(1–2), 151–154.
  • Citarella, J., Gruber, D., Jonas, J., Muka, S., & Shiga, J. (2024, June 16). The aquatic brain. Co-hosted by the Museum of Modern Art and the Emilio Ambasz Institute for the Joint Study of the Built and the Natural Environment, Museum of Modern Art, New York City. https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/9768
  • Anderman, N., & Shiga, J. (2024). Deep-sea sound system: Scientific listening, ocean heat, colonial power. Journal of Environmental Media, 5(1), 61–85.
  • Shiga, J. (2023, June 21). Refractions: Making Cold War archives audible [Audiovisual installation]. International Association for Media and History Conference, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), Montréal, Canada.
  • Sibo C., Shiga, J. & Sher, C. (2023). Understanding anti-Asian racism from communication perspectives: Insights from a rapid literature review. Canadian Journal of Communication, 48(1), 163-174.
  • Shiga, J. (2022). Audible oceans: Sonar through the lens of Ursula Franklin’s “Technological Society” [Short film]. In K. Sikri, K. Mackinnon, & L. R. Shade (Eds.), What would Ursula Franklin say? (The McLuhan Centre for Culture and Technology Research Working Group: Reprising the Real World of Technology). Humanities Commons. https://reprisingtherealworld.hcommons.org/what-would-ursula-franklin-say-collection/
  • Shiga, J. (2022, October 28–30). The Dolphin House: A sound map of Cold War vertical space [Audiovisual installation]. Sonic Cartographies: Soundscape, Simulation and Re-enactment, University of Kent.
  • Shiga, J. (2021). Sonic Saturation and Militarized Subjectivity in Cold War Submarine Films. In Melody Jue & Rafico Ruiz (eds.), Saturation: An Elemental Politics (pp. 105-122). Duke University Press.

  • 2022-2027. Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) Insight Grant, “Ambient Governance: Socio-Environmental Legacies of Cold War Undersea Acoustic Surveillance in Atlantic Canada.”
  • 2016-2017. Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) Insight Development Grant, “Audible Oceans: Sonar and the Politics of Ocean Noise.”