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academic positions
education
awards
research activities
publications
presentations
conference organizing
teaching
service
advising
public scholarship
technology proficiencies
2022-present Associate Professor
2016-2022 Assistant Professor
Department of Geography, University of Calgary
2023 Visiting Scholar Department of Geography, George Washington University
2023 Visiting Scholar
Institute of Geography, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg
2022 Visiting Scholar
Department of Geography, University of British Columbia
2022 Visiting Teaching Fellow Department of Sociology, University of Antwerp (Belgium)
2021-2022 Visiting Professor Department of Geography, University of California Berkeley
2021-2022 Visiting Professor
Department of Sociology, Katholische Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt
2015 Ph.D. Geography, University of Washington
2009 M.S. Geographic Information Science, San Diego State University
2006 B.A. Geography (Magna Cum Laude), Eastern Kentucky University
2023-2024 Science & Technology Policy Fellow, American Assocation for the Advancement of Science.
2022 Fellow, Royal Canadian Geographic Society.
2021 $97,265. SSHRC Insight Grant. “Digitizing Carbon Capitalism”. PIs: Ryan Burns, Eliot Tretter
2021 $500 (USD). American Association of Geographers, Research Grant. PI: Ryan Burns. “Spatializing Digital Labor”.
2019 Graduate Student Association Excellence Award in Graduate Supervision
2019 Eyes High Postdoctoral Scholars Competition. 2 years of funding, total value of $110,000. Co-PIs: Ryan Burns, Victoria Fast.
2019 $525,000. Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). “Artificial Intelligence for Public Health (AI4PH): A Focus on Equity and Prevention”. Collaborator.
2018 $53,655. SSHRC Insight Development Grant. “The Politics of Knowledge Representation in Open Data and Smart Cities” PI: Ryan Burns.
2018 $16,500. Urban Alliance: City of Calgary and University of Calgary. “Exploring North American Municipal Data Sharing Agreements”. PI: Ryan Burns. City of Calgary Collaborators: Nichole Wyatt, Cameron Stark.
2016-2019 $150,000. University of Calgary, Human Dynamics Research Strategy. “The Social and Environmental Implications of Smart Cities: A Global Comparative Research Agenda”. PI: Byron Miller Co-PIs: Ryan Burns, et al (see PDF CV)
2017 $25,000. SSHRC Connection Grant. “The Social and Environmental Implications of Smart Cities: Toward a Global Comparative Research Agenda.” PI: Byron Miller. Co-applicants: Ryan Burns, et al (see PDF CV)
2017 $28,000. Mellon Foundation, through University of Calgary. Academic Research and University Libraries: Creating a New Model for Collaboration. “Open Data for a Smarter City: Creating A Data Infrastructure Pilot Initiative”. PI: Ryan Burns.
2017 Department of Geography Graduate Student Association Recognition Award
2017, 2019, 2020, 2021 $3,000. Calgary Institute for the Humanities Working Group. “Social Justice and the Smart City”. Conveners: Ryan Burns, and many others
2022 Knowledge and Digital Technology; 19th symposium of the Klaus Tschira Symposia on Knowledge and Space. Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany.
2018 Technology, Law, and Society Summer Institute. University of California - Irvine. Competitive application.
2018 Globalization and Digitization - (New) Geoinformation Relationships in the World. Forum for the Study of the Global Condition: Jena, Germany. Personal invitation as participant and keynote speaker in 4-day workshop.
2017 Ethical Issues of Digital Humanitarianism. Invited as participant for one-day workshop. Montreal, QC.
2016-2017 Ethics of Location-Based Technologies in Crisis Workshop. American Association for the Advancement of Science. Washington, DC. Invited as participant.
2016 Participant, Summer Institute in Economic Geography. Lexington, KY, University of Kentucky.
2015 Fellow, Data Science for Social Good Fellowship. eScience Institute, University of Washington.
2014 Participant, “Revisiting Critical GIS”. Friday Harbor Laboratories, Friday Harbor, WA.
2013 Oxford Internet Institute Summer Doctoral Programme. i-School, University of Toronto, Canada
2011 Bergen Summer Research School University of Bergen, Norway
Select Articles and Book Chapters
2023 Tretter, E., R. Burns. Digital Transformations of the Urban – Carbon – Labor Nexus: A Research Agenda. Digital Geography & Society 5: 1-9.
2023 Burns, R., P. Welker. Interstitiality in the Smart City: Beyond Top-down and Bottom-up Smartness. Urban Studies.
2023 Mackinnon, Debra, R. Burns, V. Fast (Eds.). Digital (In)Justice in the Smart City. University of Toronto Press.
2022 Burns, Ryan, A Lauren-Hoffman, P Welker. Toward Intimate Data: Re-thinking digital, social, political relations. Association of Internet Researchers 2022: Dublin, Ireland. (Peer reviewed)
2022 Burns, R., P. Welker. “Make our communities better through data”: The Moral Economy of Smart City Labor. Big Data & Society 9(1).
2021 Mouton, Morgan, R. Burns. (Digital) Neo-colonialism and the Smart City. Regional Studies 55(12): 1890-1901. https://doi.org/10.1080/00343404.2021.1915974.
2021 Miller, B., K. Ward, R. Burns, V. Fast, A. Levenda. Worlding and Provincialising Smart Cities: From Individual Case Studies to a Global Comparative Research Agenda. Urban Studies. OnlineFirst. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098020976086.
2021 Burns, Ryan. Transgressions: Reflecting on Critical GIS and Digital Geographies. Digital Geography & Society 2: 1-3. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.diggeo.2021.100011 (open access).
2020 Burns, Ryan, M. Andrucki. Smart Cities: Who Cares?. Environment & Planning A 53(1): 12-30. https://doi.org/10.1177/0308518X20941516.
2020 Burns, Ryan. A COVID-19 Panacea in Digital Technologies? Challenges for Democracy and Higher Education. Dialogues in Human Geography 10(2): 246–249. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F2043820620930832.
2020 Burns, Ryan, P. Welker. Moral Economies of Open Data Platforms. Association of Internet Researchers 2020: Virtual conference. (Peer reviewed)
2019 Burns, Ryan, G. Wark. Where’s the Database in Digital Ethnography? Exploring Database Ethnography for Open Data Research. Qualitative Research 20(5): 598-616. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468794119885040.
2019 Burns, Ryan. New Frontiers of Philanthro-capitalism: Digital Technologies and Humanitarianism. Antipode 51(4):1101-1122. https://doi.org/10.1111/anti.12534.
2019 Burns, Ryan. A City of Digital Engagement. In R. Kitchin, J. Shaw, M. Graham, S. Mattern (eds.), How to Run the City Like A Corporation, and Other Fables. Meatspace Press.
2019 Burns, Ryan. “Let the Private Sector Take Care of This”: The Philanthro-capitalism of Digital Humanitarianism. In M. Graham (ed.), Digital Economies at the Global Margins. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
2018 Burns, Ryan. Datafying Disaster: Institutional Framings of Data Production following Superstorm Sandy. Annals of the American Association of Geographers 108(2): 569-578. https://doi.org/10.1080/24694452.2017.1402673.
Edited Journal Issues (with Peer Review)
2021 Thatcher, Jim, R. Burns, C. Dalton. “Regional Approaches to data, environment, and society”. Special issue of Regional Studies.
2021 Miller, Byron, R. Burns, V. Fast, A. Levenda. “Between Provincializing and Worlding Smart Cities”. Special Issue of Urban Studies.
2018 Burns, Ryan, C. Dalton, J. Thatcher. “Critical Data, Critical Technology in Theory and Practice.” Special Issue of Professional Geographer.
2017 Burns, Ryan, N. Lally. “Toward a Geographical Software Studies.” Special Section of Computational Culture.
2015 Burns, Ryan, D. Meek. “The Politics of Knowledge Production in the Geoweb.” Special Issue of ACME: An International E-Journal for Critical Geographies.
2014 Burns, Ryan, J. Thatcher. “What’s So Big about Big Data? Finding the Spaces and Perils of Big Data.” Special Issue of GeoJournal.
Papers presented
2020 “Moral Economies of Open Data Platforms”. Association of Internet Researchers 2020. Virtual conference (40% acceptance rate), formerly Dublin, Ireland. Presentation with Preston Welker.
2020 “Moral Economies of Open Data Platforms”. 4S/EASST 2020. Virtual conference, formerly Prague, Czech Republic. Presentation with Preston Welker.
2019 “(Digital) Neocolonialism in the Smart City”. 4S 2019 (Society for Social Studies of Science). New Orleans. Presented with Morgan Mouton.
2019 “A Data Story in Two Parts: Smart Cities, Open Data, and Their Inequalities”. Invited presentation at Data for Good - Calgary. June 27, 2019.
2018 “The Taming of Knowledge: Digital Infrastructures of Humanitarianism” Invited presentation at University of Toronto, Toronto, ON. Part of the “Infrastructures of Development” speaker series.
2018 “Where’s the Database in Digital Ethnography? Exploring Database Ethnography for Open Data and Smart Cities Research”. EASST (European Association for the Study of Science & Technology) 2018. Lancaster, UK. Co-authored with Grace Wark.
2018 “From government to community: ethnographic insights into the political dimension of data production.” Invited presentation at University of Exeter, Exeter, UK. Co-authored with Grace Wark. Presented with Morgan Mouton.
2018 “Development, Normativity, and Criticality: Three Points of Coalescence in Open Data Research and Practice”. Invited presentation (by video) at University of Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria.
Conference Sessions Organized
2019 Organizer. “Gendering the Smart City: Towards Just and Feminist Urban Futures”. Annual Meeting of the AAG. Washington, DC. Organized with Ayona Datta, Nabeela Ahmed, and Max Andrucki.
2018 Panelist and Organizer. “Interdisciplinary Critical Data Studies”. Annual Meeting of the Association for Information Science and Technology (57% acceptance rate). Vancouver, BC.
2018 Organizer and panelist. “My City Is Smarter than Yours: Deconstructing the Buzzwords”. Annual Meeting of the AAG. New Orleans, LA. Organizer with Victoria Fast.
2018 Organizer. “Making Smarter Environments: The Environmental Politics and Practices of Smart Cities”. Annual Meeting of the AAG. New Orleans, LA. Organizer with Anthony Levenda.
2023 Organizer. Digital Geographic Movements and Methods. University of Calgary.
2018 Organizer. 13th Annual Critical Geographies Mini-conference. University of Calgary.
2017 Co-organizer. “Emerging Theories in Critical Cartography and GIS”. Workshop concurrent with the North American Cartographic Information Society. Montreal, QC.
2017 Co-organizer. “The Social and Environmental Implications of Smart Cities: a Global Comparative Research Agenda”. Workshop at University of Calgary.
Advanced Research and Applications in GIS; Urban and Environmental GIS; Introduction to Geospatial Methods; Urban Studies Capstone; Spaces of Urban Politics (U of Calgary)
Artificial Intelligence for Community Public Health (UofC study abroad)
Smart Cities Asia: Geography Field School (UofC study abroad)
Representation, Capstone Seminar (UofC Arts & Sciences Honours Academy)
Web and Mobile GIS; Digital Mapping; Fundamentals of GIS (Temple U)
GIS Databases and Programming; Cultural Geography; The Making of World Regions; Urban GIS (U Washington)
2023-present Associate Editor, GeoJournal
2020-present Editorial Board, Digital Geography & Society
2017-present Editorial Board for ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies
2020-present Secretary & Treasurer, Digital Geographies Specialty Group of the AAG*
2018-2022 Book review editor, The Canadian Geographer
Post-docs: Debra Mackinnon (2019-2021), Morgan Mouton (2018-2019), Anthony Levenda (2017-2018)
PhD: Joyce Percel
MA & MGIS: Preston Welker (2021), Angela Ambrose (2021)
Graduated: Dare Adeyemi (2020), Prakash Gautam (2019)
2019-2020 Co-chair, Alberta Non-profit Data Strategy – Data Hubs Task Group. (stewardship of PolicyWise, Edmonton, AB).
2019 Organizer. “Working with Open Data”. Cyber Summit. Kananaskis Country, AB. Co-organized by personal invitation with David Chan and Byron Chu of Cybera.
2018 Inaugural lecture, “Social and Technological Humanitarian Studies” program, University of Calgary. A lecture I organized to report to my department the research I’ve been doing.
2018 Keynote presenter, “Open Data Community of Practice” workshop. City of Calgary, AB.
2018 Organizer, “YYC Data Collective Launch Workshop”. Community engagement session for YYC Data Collective, in collaboration with local volunteer and research organizations.
2017 2-day University of Calgary map-a-thon for Geography Awareness Week and GIS Day, contributing to Building Canada 2020.
