- About CMNS
- Students
- People
- Research
- Centres & Institutes
- Public Safety Deployable
- PSBNs
- Field Tests
- Partners
- Blog
- Images from ICE2015 Phase 3
- ICE2015 Phase 4 Images Added
- Phase 4 and ICE2015 Field Activities Complete!
- Phase 3 Successful and Phase 4 Happening!
- ICE2015 Phase 2 Successful!
- Phase 1 Checkout Tests Complete!
- Deploying!
- Heading up North for ICE2015 prep!
- ICE2015 Site Checkout Complete!
- New video for DUNE2014!
- Lasers, LTE, and mission-critical comms, oh my!
- DUNE2014: Reporting in real time
- DUNE2014: The Voyage Home!
- Phase 4 Complete!
- Phase 3 Images now up!
- Phase 3 Complete!
- Phase 2 Success!
- Return to the School of Communication
- NewsWatch Canada
- Digital Democracies Institute
- Public Safety Deployable
- Labs & Projects
- Applied Communication and Technology Laboratory
- Members
- Projects
- Publications
- Grants
- Visitors
- Events
- Contact
- Links
- News
- Technē
- Universidade Federal de Uberlândia in Brazil
- Revolutionary Horizons?
- Recurring Questions of Technology: A Brief History of Consciousness and Learning, UBC/SFU Summer Institute
- Andrew Feenberg and Norm Friesen: (Re)inventing the Internet: Critical Case Studies
- Tina Sikka: International Award for Excellence
- Neil Narine: Cinema and Social Networks and Globalization, Humanitarian Crises, and Gender
- Read new research on film sound by Neil Narine
- Assessment of Technology in Context Design Lab
- GeNA Lab
- Sonic Research Studio
- The Transnational Culture and Digital Technology Lab
- Public Safety Deployable
- PSBNs
- Field Tests
- Partners
- Blog
- Images from ICE2015 Phase 3
- ICE2015 Phase 4 Images Added
- Phase 4 and ICE2015 Field Activities Complete!
- Phase 3 Successful and Phase 4 Happening!
- ICE2015 Phase 2 Successful!
- Phase 1 Checkout Tests Complete!
- Deploying!
- Heading up North for ICE2015 prep!
- ICE2015 Site Checkout Complete!
- New video for DUNE2014!
- Lasers, LTE, and mission-critical comms, oh my!
- DUNE2014: Reporting in real time
- DUNE2014: The Voyage Home!
- Phase 4 Complete!
- Phase 3 Images now up!
- Phase 3 Complete!
- Phase 2 Success!
- Return to the School of Communication
- NewsWatch Canada
- The Disinformation Project
- Distributed Networks
- Indigenous Classroom Climate Issues (ICCI)
- Cultural Industries in Acute Crisis
- Applied Communication and Technology Laboratory
- Publications
- Books
- The Power of Platforms: Shaping Media and Society
- Discriminating Data Correlation, Neighborhoods, and the New Politics of Recognition
- Transnational Hallyu The Globalization of Korean Digital and Popular Culture
- The Routledge Handbook of Digital Media and Globalization
- Artificial Intelligence in Cultural Production: Critical Perspectives on Digital Platforms
- Awards & grants
- Journal Articles
- Books
- Faculty Research
- Centres & Institutes
- News and Community
- Student Stories
- School of Communication Graduate Researches how TikTok Influences Climate Change Communication
- Meet the First School of Communication Accelerated Master’s Program Graduate
- School of Communication Graduand Discusses how to Step Outside of Your Comfort Zone
- Macy Moreno & Zarena Zaidi on Teaching Children about the Magic of Filmmaking
- Joaquin Suarez and His Drive for Communication Research
- Three Convocating Students Tell Us About Their CMNS Journey
- Genevieve Cheng and Sharing Isn't Caring
- Sureeta Rai Presents Her Research at the FCAT Undergraduate Conference
- Meet Gideone Kremler, Our New CMNS Indigenous Peer Mentor
- Silke Billings: From Student to Full-Time Employee
- Graduating Student Sharlyn Monillas Tells Us About Her Time in CMNS
- Getting to Know Layla Cameron
- Mina Einifar: MA Student, Digital Marketing Expert, and Influencer Activist
- Breanna Blackwell & Undergraduate Research
- Graduate student a top 25 finalist in pretigeous challenge
- Congratulations to our MA and PhD students
- Climate Strike in Vancouver: SFU CMNS Perspective
- A Creative Communicator is on the Horizon | Aliya Dall’Antonia
- Tara Mahoney on inter-generational civic engagement, climate change, and importance of hope
- The Heyang Rural Research Center
- Luke Galvani challenges common stereotypes surrounding disability
- Bernice Mau: How to grow a successful side-hustle as a student
- 2020 Convocation Medal winners
- 2021 FCAT UGC Student Stories
- CMNS Co-op student graduating this fall recognized for her work fostering equity, diversity and inclusion
- CMNS graduate students publish book reviews in the International Journal of Communication
- Communication honours student studies online conspiracy theories, disinformatio
- Communication student Clayton Wong reflects on his co-op journey
- Congratulations to our 2019/20 Major Award Recipients
- Congratulations to our 2020/2021 Major Award Recipients
- Doctoral candidate Stacey Copeland and PhD student Brett Ashleigh are finalists in this year’s SSHRC Storytellers competition
- Embracing the university experience in all forms - Rachel Wong
- Fall 2021 Convocation: Looking Back
- Meet communication undergraduate student Ashran Bharosha
- Gaining experience as an undergraduate: Communication major and SIAT minor expands diverse skill set at SFU
- FCAT UGC Student Stories
- Meet Samad and Lindsay: Convocation Spring 2021 Student Speakers
- PhD candiate Stacey Copeland: Scholarly podcasters are redefining peer-reviewed work
- Memory of migrant abuse fuels SFU Trudeau Scholar’s lifelong fight for human rights
- PhD candidate Belen Febres-Cordero recognized for community engagement work at annual President’s Gala
- PhD student Laya Behbahani is SFU Social Media Newsmaker of the Year
- Stacey Copeland uncovers the historical voices of Canada’s queer media soundscape
- Tri-Agency Scholarships and Fellowships Recipients
- Undergraduate students launch online platform MyCityMyPark project with the City of Vancouver
- Faculty Stories
- Professor Sarah Ganter Awarded Trans-Atlantic Partnership Grant to Research the Meanings of Independence in Journalism
- Reflecting on Professor Stuart Poyntz’ Time as Director of the School of Communication
- School of Communication Professor Milena Droumeva Named School Director
- Getting to Know Your CMNS Faculty: Erique Zhang
- School of Communication professor Wendy Chun named British Academy Fellow
- Sarah Christina Ganzon Racialized and Indigenous Scholars Network Talk
- School of Communication Professor Explores the Rise of Indigenous Media in Canada
- School of Communication Professor Works to Understand the Role of Communication in the Opioid Crisis
- Getting to Know Your CMNS Faculty: Jas Morgan
- Getting to Know Your CMNS Faculty: Sarah Christina Ganzon
- Getting to Know Your CMNS Faculty: Sarah Ganter
- Getting to Know Your CMNS Faculty: Stephanie Dick
- Getting To Know Your CMNS Faculty: Adel Iskandar
- Professors Siyuan Yin, Svitlana Matviyenko, and Karrmen Crey Awarded Insight Development Grants
- Getting To Know Our Faculty: Siyuan Yin
- Wendy Chun and Amy Harris, Keynote Speakers
- A Soundwalk with Milena Droumeva
- Dal Yong Jin Becomes an ICA Fellow
- Protecting Expert Advice for the Public: Promoting Safety and Improved Communications – A Town Hall
- The Medium is the Metaverse: Studying New Media in Virtual Reality
- Peter Anderson: BC floods reveals need for systemic change in emergency management
- Karrmen Crey: Indigenous Epistemologies
- Join the Clubhouse: communication course goes mobile
- Victoria E. Thomas: Seek a research question that sparks your curiosity and challenges your personal ideologies
- Peter Anderson: Fighting fires with better emergency communication
- Andrew Feenberg retires from the School of Communication
- Remembering R. Murray Schafer
- CMNS faculty members receive tri-council grants to support their research
- Cait McKinney receives the 2021 Gertrude J. Robinson Award
- Ellen Balka and UBC researchers take aim at preventing adverse drug events
- Knowledge Mobilizers: Ahmed Al-Rawi
- Enda Brophy receives Confederation of University Faculty Associations of BC Academic of the Year award
- Ahmed Al-Rawi: How did Russian and Iranian trolls’ disinformation influence Canadian politics?
- Martin Laba: What I'm learning about remote teaching
- The Digital Democracies Institute launch the DDI Blog
- Ahmed Al-Rawi co-authors The COVID-19 Vaccine Communication Handbook
- Listening to the city: Livable Soundscapes soundwalk research workshop
- Dal Yong Jin receives the title Distinguished SFU Professor
- Labour challenges of food delivery service workers in Metro Vancouver
- Sun-ha Hong: Big Data's promise to solve society's problems falls short
- Welcoming our new School Chairs
- Peter Chow-White: Social media during a crisis and how we stay connected
- Transforming Discourses, Information Flows, and Power because: BLACK LIVES MATTER!
- Communication professors developing tools to tackle online abuse
- Communications professor Adel Iskandar embraces storytelling and active dialogue
- COVID-19 Research Information
- Yuezhi Zhao receives Canada's highest academic honour
- Siyuan Yin: On the intersectional approach to researching global migration
- Steven Malcic: Envision policy frameworks and user tactics to foster an internet that works for us
- Aleena Chia: Inspired to uncover the infrastructures behind addiction vs engagement in the gaming industry
- Cait McKinney: The transformative history of LGBTQ communities and their communication needs
- Assistant Professors receive SHRCC Grant
- Ellen Balka - implements software to reduce preventable adverse drug events
- Ellen Balka Receives the Paz Buttedahl Career Achievement Award
- Robert Anderson receives the 2018 Chris Dagg Award for International Impact
- SFU CMNS New Website Launch
- Alumni Stories
- School of Communication Graduate Mozhgan Fazli Transfers Research Skillset to Industry
- From the Honour’s Program to Master’s: Alan Röpke Looks Back at his Time as an Undergraduate Student
- Professor Bruce Carruthers Discusses how SFU Experience Shaped his Academic Career
- How Yzobel Biron became a Successful Entrepreneur after Graduation
- Communication alumnus and renowned acoustic ecologist Hildegard Westerkamp receives honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from SFU
- School of Communication Alumnus Becomes Successful Author while Embracing Working in Industry
- Manisha Singh on Pursuing Her Dream to Becoming a Bestselling Author
- School of Communication Graduand Excels in Academia After Working in Public Relations for 10 Years
- Stefanie Costales on Finding a Job That’s Right For You
- Rumneek Johal: Not Backing Down in the Journalism World
- Prem Gill and Creative BC
- Grace Mavko Takes on the Field of Public Relations
- Naomi Ambrose Introduces the Christmas Snow Woman
- Jennifer Rhyne Takes Her Communication Degree to CBC
- Danielle Leroux and the She Summits Forum
- Anita Huberman, an Alumna Superstar
- Itse Hesse and Black Girl Collective
- Matthew Steinbach: Head Coach, CMNS Alumus, and Venture Prize Winner
- SFU honours three outstanding alumni
- Curiosity and dialogue: Communication alumnus pursues a passionate career of art and education
- Tips from a CMNS Alumnus: Jas Baweja
- Brett Montrose: Communication alumnus to award-winning founder
- CMNS alumnus launches art and essay exhibition
- Jenessa Gladstone: One alumni's journey from SFU to landing roles with Vancouver Whitecaps FC and Arc'teryx
- Shipra Sharma: From International Student Experience to Landing a Marketing Job at Telus
- Manjot Bains - A look at University Writing and Diversity in Media
- Women in Equity Crowdfunding: Elyssia Patterson from Vested.ca
- The Collective Blog
- Barbie: a Surprisingly Feminist Film
- A Quick List of Must-Take Communication Courses
- Social Media as Mirror of Erised
- Handling Anxiety as a Student
- Leading with Quietness: A Note to Working Introverts
- Gaining Experience to Achieve Your Career Goals
- Putting my Passions to Work
- Vanquishing the Social Stigma on Mental Well-Being
- New to SFU? Here Are Three Helpful Tips to Assist You on Your Journey!
- Accessible Online Content Now
- Spill the Tea: Gentrification of Vancouver Chinatown
- Student’s Experience at Careers in Communications
- Finding Balance in Unbalanced Times: Learning and Working Remotely
- Surprising Yourself: How Keeping an Open Mind is One of the Best Things You Can Do as a Young Professional
- Meet Kayli Jamieson: Communication honours student and undergraduate research assistant
- CMNSU: Five Things I’ve Learned at SFU
- CMNSU presents "Evolve Rebooted: The Zoom Series"
- CMNSU: How I Stay Productive While Working and Studying From Home
- Immersing Yourself at SFU
- 5 Tips to get YOU from the classroom desk to an office desk
- You are not an imposter: tips to reframe your thinking
- Becoming familiar with the unfamiliar
- 4 lessons I learned from working at SFU
- FASS 202 & Co-op Experience
- Questions to Ask your Mentors
- Meet Marilyn Brimacombe: CMNS Co-op student shares experience working at FCAT and the Parkinson's Society BC
- Looking to improve your writing skills? Get involved with the CE Online Media Taskforce
- How To Better Manage Your Time While At Work
- Why Joining the CMNSU Was the Best Decision I Made at SFU
- 3 Ways to get Involved at SFU
- 6 Tips You Should Know Before Your Next Virtual Interview
- Paying off your student loans
- 3 Skills I Didn’t Expect to Gain During Co-op:
- Tips and Tricks to Save Money
- Apply Now: Blog Contributors
- Get Involved
- Reflecting on 50 Years of Communication Studies at SFU
- Marking the Passing of Dr. Vincent Mosco
- Guest Lectures
- Student Stories
- Events
- Careers & Opportunities
- Faculty and Staff Login
- Room Booking
Associate Professor
E: smatviye@sfu.ca
Room: K9676
Svitlana Matviyenko
Svitlana Matviyenko is an Associate Professor of Critical Media Analysis in the School of Communication and Associate Director of the Digital Democracies Institute. Her research and teaching, informed by science & technology studies and history of science, are focused on information and cyberwar, media and environment, critical infrastructure studies and postcolonial theory. Matviyenko’s current work on nuclear cultures & heritage investigates the practices of nuclear terror, weaponization of pollution and technogenic catastrophes during the Russian war in Ukraine.
Matviyenko is a co-editor of two collections, The Imaginary App (MIT Press, 2014) and Lacan and the Posthuman (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018). She is a co-author of Cyberwar and Revolution: Digital Subterfuge in Global Capitalism (Minnesota UP, 2019), a winner of the 2019 book award of the Science Technology and Art in International Relations (STAIR) section of the International Studies Association and of the Canadian Communication Association 2020 Gertrude J. Robinson book prize.
At the Digital Democracies Institute, Matviyenko leads Cyberwar Topologies and Media, Infrastructure, Environment research streams. She serves on the Advisory Board of Critical Infrastructure Lab (University of Amsterdam).
Education
- PhD (2015) Critical Theory; Philosophy of Technology and Science - Centre for the Study of Theory of Criticism, University of Western Ontario
- PhD (2011) Critical Theory, Film and Media Theory - Department of English, University of Missouri
- MA (2001) and BA (2000) Theory, History of Literature and Comparative Literature Department of Humanities, University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Ukraine
Currently Teaching
Courses
Fall 2024
Spring 2025
Future courses may be subject to change.
publications
Books
Nick Dyer-Witheford and Svitlana Matviyenko, Cyberwar and Revolution: Digital Subterfuge in Global Capitalism (Minnesota UP, 2019).
Ukrainian translation: Кібервійна і революція (Krytyka, 2020).
Global surveillance, computational propaganda, online espionage, virtual recruiting, massive data breaches, hacked nuclear centrifuges and power grids—concerns about cyberwar have been mounting, rising to a fever pitch after the alleged Russian hacking of the U.S. presidential election and the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Although cyberwar is widely discussed, few accounts undertake a deep, critical view of its roots and consequences.
Analyzing the new militarization of the internet, Cyberwar and Revolution argues that digital warfare is not a bug in the logic of global capitalism but rather a feature of its chaotic, disorderly unconscious. Urgently confronting the concept of cyberwar through the lens of both Marxist critical theory and psychoanalysis, Nick Dyer-Witheford and Svitlana Matviyenko provide a wide-ranging examination of the class conflicts and geopolitical dynamics propelling war across digital networks.
Investigating the subjectivities that cyberwar mobilizes, exploits, and bewilders, and revealing how it permeates the fabric of everyday life and implicates us all in its design, this book also highlights the critical importance of the emergent resistance to this digital militarism—hacktivism, digital worker dissent, and off-the-grid activism—for effecting different, better futures.
Cyberwar and Revolution is a winner of the 2019 book award of the Science Technology and Art in International Relations (STAIR) section of the International Studies Association and of the Canadian Communication Association 2020 Gertrude J. Robinson book prize.
Reviews:
“Engaging, imaginative, and thorough, Cyberwar and Revolution tracks the emergence of cyberwar as expressions and fantasies that reveal the unconscious violent hostility of contemporary capitalism.” (Benjamin Noys, University of Chichester)
“Sweeping in scope, precise with details, and penetrating in its theoretical analysis, Cyberwar and Revolution is a superbly crafted account. Nick Dyer-Witheford and Svitlana Matviyenko attend to the specificities of tactics and technologies in light of geopolitical hierarchies and shifting configurations around imperialism and capitalism that animate the direction and impact of cyberwar across the globe. Erudite and yet riveting, Cyberwar and Revolution could not be more timely and urgent.” (Gabriella Coleman, McGill University)
“As information networks become more pervasive, the criss-crossing lines they draw make it harder to know what is inside and what is outside. Is this a state of perpetual war, ubiquitous revolution, and violence without ends (only means)? In such a theater, who is really a civilian? Cyberwar and Revolution provides a chilling account of what is at stake for the further militarization of data and an emphatic vision for a far less dangerous alternative.” (Benjamin H. Bratton, University of California, San Diego; Strelka Institute of Media, Architecture and Design in Moscow)
Other reviews in Neural, Surveillance & Society, Security Journal, Journal of Strategic Security, Information, Communication & Society
Edited Books
Lacan and The Posthuman, eds. Svitlana Matviyenko and Judith Roof. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018.
When Posthumanism displaces the traditional human subject, what does psychoanalysis add to contemporary conversations about subject/object relations, systems, perspectives, and values?
Promoting psychoanalysis’ focus on the cybernetic relationships among subjects, language, social organizations, desire, drive, and other human motivations, this book demonstrates the continued relevance of Lacan’s work not only to continued understandings of the human subject, but to the broader cultural impasses we now face. Exploring Posthumanism from the insights of Lacan’s psychoanalysis, chapters expose and elucidate not only the conditions within which Posthumanist thought arises, but also reveal symptoms of its flaws: the blindness to anthropomorphization, projection, and unrecognized shifts in scale and perspective, as well as its mode of transcendental thought that enables many Posthumanist declarations.
The Imaginary App, eds. Paul D. Miller and Svitlana Matviyenko. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2014.
The mobile app as technique and imaginary tool, offering a shortcut to instantaneous connection and entertainment.
Mobile apps promise to deliver (h)appiness to our devices at the touch of a finger or two. Apps offer gratifyingly immediate access to connection and entertainment. The array of apps downloadable from the app store may come from the cloud, but they attach themselves firmly to our individual movement from location to location on earth. In The Imaginary App, writers, theorists, and artists—including Stephen Wolfram (in conversation with Paul Miller) and Lev Manovich—explore the cultural and technological shifts that have accompanied the emergence of the mobile app. These contributors and interviewees see apps variously as “a machine of transcendence,” “a hulking wound in our nervous system,” or “a promise of new possibilities.” They ask whether the app is an object or a relation, and if it could be a “metamedium” that supersedes all other artistic media. They consider the control and power exercised by software architecture; the app's prosthetic ability to enhance certain human capacities, in reality or in imagination; the app economy, and the divergent possibilities it offers of making a living or making a fortune; and the app as medium and remediator of reality.
research
Science and Technology studies; History of Science; Critical Infrastructure Studies; Communication Theory; Psychoanalysis; War Studies; War and Environment