The 2026 Homecoming Grape Stomp is Friday, Sept. 18 from 12-1.
Will you be joining Team CPCF? We will have a table where you can meet up with your fellow CPCF students, make some new friends, chat with professors, and store your stuff while you enjoy the fun!
But first…
You must be registered through ExperienceBU to participate.
CPCF, Grape Stomp, Homecoming
Categories: Events, News
Congratulations to CPCF student Robert O’Neill who was recently announced as the winner of the Faculty of Social Sciences Academic Excellence Award for his essay “Who Gets to Destroy the Environment: Objective Violence and the Ideological Work of Contemporary Eco-Cinema”.
Professor Christie Milliken, who teaches Eco-Cinema (FILM 4P58), explains that the essay “interrogates some of the traditional ways in which violence is theorized to reconceive the problem of representation that accrues around environmental harms. Using the eco-thriller Michael Clayton (2007), and two eco-terrorist films, Night Moves (2013) and First Reformed (2017) as case studies, O’Neill deftly shows how these narratives conceal the reality of environmental harm by offering narrative trajectories built on character studies that might punish transgressors, or dramatize the psychological toll of fighting eco harms, but which ultimately fail to expose ongoing, intransigent structural harms that are part of the violence of the system itself.”
award, CPCF, environment, Film
Categories: News
The course is designed to foster understanding of relational communication. Explore theories of dialogue and apply them to personal and social relationships. Topics include communication and identity, relational tensions, dialogue in organizations, and bridging differences.
Develop the communication skills that build stronger relationships in friendships, romantic partnerships, families, and workplaces. This fall is the final opportunity to take this course.
communication, CPCF, honours
Categories: News
Congratulations to all the CPCF graduates who crossed the Convocation stage this spring!
Your passion, dedication and hard work have paid off. We are so proud of all that you’ve accomplished during your time at Brock University, and we can’t wait to see where your next adventure takes you.
class of 2026, Convocation, CPCF, graduation
Categories: Events, News
On the morning of Wednesday, June 10, Dr. Karen Louise Smith, Associate Professor in the Department of Communication, Popular Culture and Film, delivered an address to the graduating Class of 2026.
Dr. Smith reflects on the idea of “milestones,” explaining that while graduation is an important one, milestones also include the personal, professional, and guiding moments that shape our journeys. She encourages graduates to define their own milestones by focusing on the people, ideas, and values that matter most to them as they move confidently into the future.
Watch the complete address here
class of 2026, Convocation, CPCF, graduation
Categories: Events, News
Dr. Barry Grant, Professor Emeritus from the Department of Communication, Popular Culture and Film, has released a new book – Peter Jackson: Film Authorship in a Global Hollywood. Tracing Jackson’s trajectory through detailed textual analysis, Dr. Grant examines how he mobilizes the conventions of Hollywood film genres to speak to audiences in his home country of New Zealand, as well as engage audiences around the world. Dr. Grant is an internationally known film critic and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. His book delivers thoughtful close readings of every Jackson film.
Barry Grant, CPCF, Film, Film Studies, Hollywood
Categories: News
Dr. Duncan Koerber, Associate Professor of Business Communication in the Department of Communication, Popular Culture and Film, has released a new book – Crisis in a Tweet: The Rise of the Social Media Crisis. “Unlike traditional emergencies caused by natural disasters or product failures, social media upheaval originates in the digital realm but leads to real world consequences – job losses, reputational harm, and public shame – disproportionate to the original act.” Dr. Koerber’s research and teaching focuses on crisis communication theory, writing pedagogy, and media and journalism history.
Communication Studies, CPCF, Crisis Communication, Duncan Keorber, Social Media
Categories: News
The 2026 CPCF Campaign Challenge was held on Friday, February 27th at Brock University. It brought together industry experts and three amazing teams of students who pitched their marketing ideas for how to attract young people to take the GO Train’s Toronto-Niagara route. The Department of Communication, Popular Culture and Film would like to thank everyone who contributed to this year’s successful challenge.
The panel of judges – Elizabeth Beale, Chris Giles, Dharmi Gohil and Claire Terrio, all of whom are CPCF grads who have gone on to prove themselves in the world of communication, marketing and media, were very impressed by the interesting pitches made and the professionalism of the three finalist teams.
At the end of the day, the event’s fantastic MCs Harmon Kaur and Solomon Mike, who were last year’s winning team, handed off the O’Malley Cup to this year’s victors. Congratulations to Mercedes Agahzadeh, Arianne D’Arcy, and Sydney Miller who impressed with their professional ad mockups tied directly into a focus on specific seasonal marketing.
Finally, a special thanks to the cup’s original owner, and the constant patron of the competition, Terry O’Malley who joined us for the day’s festivities.
BusinessCommunication, Competition, CPCF
Categories: Events, News
Professor Emeritus and Internationally Recognized Horror Scholar, Dr. Barry Grant, will be in attendance to introduce the next film in this year’s anniversary series: Shivers (1975)!
The Brock University Film Society’s “Festival of 50” continues Thursday, January 22 at the Niagara Artist Centre’s Microcinema, with a screening of David Cronenberg’s Shivers (1975). We’ve been revisiting some of the most important films that were released in 1975, the year BUFS was founded, and this is the first of two screenings co-sponsored by the Centre for Canadian Studies that are focusing on Canadian cinema (Canadian exploitation cinema, or Canuxploitation, to be more accurate).
Shivers, of course, was the film that launched Cronenberg as a horror specialist and set him on a path to becoming one of the great auteur filmmakers of the last half century. It’s the film that prompted fans and critics to nickname Cronenberg “the Baron of Blood” and “the King of Venereal Horror.” It’s also a film that caused a furor when it was released in 1975 because of the fact that it had been financed in part by the Canadian Film Development Corporation. As Robert Fulford put it to his Canadian readers in the pages of Saturday Night, “You should know how bad this film is. After all, you paid for it.” How “bad” is Shivers? There’s only one way to find out.
Brock University Film Society, BUFS, CPCF, Film Studies, Student Life
Categories: Events
Film History II (FILM 2P99) has just opened up a few more spaces! If interested contact [email protected]
The class runs Monday 8:00-9:00am and Friday 9:00-12:00pm in STH 215.
The course looks at Hollywood and international cinema from WW2 to the modern era.
