The CHiMERA project (Canadian History of Media Exhibition Research Archive) is dedicated to digitizing and making accessible Canadian media records. We aim to create an extensive online archive that documents the exhibition and business history of media in Canada. By digitizing and preserving periodicals and other records that chronicle the evolution of cinema and other media, we hope to create a comprehensive resource that supports not only academic research but also enhances educational opportunities and engages the public in exploring the cultural and historical significance of media in Canada. Through this project, we also strive to highlight the diverse narratives and contributions that have shaped Canada's media landscape.

Project co-leads

Dr. Paul Moore

Paul Moore is Professor of Sociology at Toronto Metropolitan University. Overall, his work argues that amusement and leisure help constitute modern publics by providing spaces, rhetorics, and logics for collective gathering. His media histories of cinema exhibition and newspaper distribution in North America have focused on the relation between audiences and publicity, appearing in Film History, Canadian Journal of Film Studies, and The Moving Image. With Sandra Gabriele, The Sunday Paper: A Media History (Illinois, 2022), tells the story of the American newspaper supplement.

Jessica Leonora Whitehead is an Assistant Professor in the Communication and Languages Department at Cape Breton University, specializing in media and screen cultures. She is also the Media Lab Director at the Centre for Sound Communities. Her scholarly work includes exploring local and diasporic filmgoing and Federico Fellini's impact on global cinema.  Her writing has appeared in the Canadian Journal of Film Studies, Transformative Works and Cultures, TMG Journal for Media History, Italian Canadiana, and chapters in the books Rural Cinema Exhibition and Audiences in a Global Context, Handbook of Ethnic Media in Canada, and Mapping Movie Magazines. She was awarded UofT's Superior Teaching Award, Excellence through Innovation award, and was appointed a Teaching Chair at CBU for her work with digital pedagogies.

Research Assistants

Katherine Birrette is currently completing her Masters of Education degree at Cape Breton University, and previously graduated CBU in 2021 with her Bachelor of Arts Community Studies (Honours in Psychology) degree. Katherine started working for Dr. Whitehead in 2023 as the lead Research Assistant for The CHiMERA Project, and has been primarily responsible for designing the website in addition to other inner workings of the project. Katherine also works alongside Dr. Whitehead with her research on flexible digital learning delivery at CBU.

Gabriella Samways is a recent graduate from Cape Breton University in the Bachelor of Arts Honours in History program where she completed her thesis on women’s agency in early modern Scottish witch trials. She will be starting her Masters in History at Saint Mary’s University in the Fall of 2024. As a research assistant for Dr. Jessica Whitehead, her work has centred around scanning Cape Breton Newspapers between 1919 and 1925 as well as researching The Maritime Motion Picture Company.

Christopher Mulvihill is a recent graduate from Cape Breton University. He worked with the Beaton Institute on the history of the Cape Breton Flying Club, and has spent time with research on surgeons in the 18th century French colony of Louisbourg. Christopher is planning on continuing his education with a masters program. Working as a research Assistant for Dr. Jessica Whitehead, he has been scanning Cape Breton newspapers from 1919 to 1925, as well as researching into the Maritime Motion Picture Company.

Bio coming soon!

For inquiries about the project, you can contact us at mediahistory.ca@gmail.com