Remembering Jonathan
Prepared for the Department of Art History and Communication Studies by Will Straw, James McGill Professor Emeritus of Urban Media Studies and Christine Ross, James McGill Professor Emerita of Contemporary Art History
The Department of Art History and Communication Studies mourns the death of an outstanding researcher, teacher, and colleague, Jonathan Sterne (1970-2025), James McGill Professor of Culture and Technology, Guggenheim Fellow, Fellow of the International Communication Association, and Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.
Jonathan Sterne joined the recently formed Department of Art History and Communication Studies at McGill in 2004, five years after completing a Doctorate within the Institute of Communications Research at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. At the time of his arrival at McGill, he was already active in an informal community of scholars, many of them in Montreal’s four universities, who were developing a version of Communication Studies marked by the influence of cultural studies and critical theory. His reputation across several fields, including sound, media, new media and media and technology studies, was rising quickly, sparked by the publication in 2003 of his field-defining The Audible Past – an investigation of the cultural history of sound reproduction. This work, like his second book, MP3: The Meaning of a Format (2012), would be translated into several languages and both would stand as foundational works in the emerging area of sound studies. Along with his edited collection, The Sound Studies Reader (2012) and dozens of other articles and book chapters, Sterne’s work created a domain of research which remains vital and international in scope. His last book, Diminished Faculties: A Political Phenomenology of Impairment (2021), winner of the 2023 Gertrude J. Robinson Book Prize presented by the Canadian Communication Association, further developed the concerns with empowerment and the social meanings of technology which have run through his work since its beginnings. Reorienting his approach, he drew on his own history with thyroid cancer and a paralyzed vocal cord to carry out a political phenomenology of impairment in which experience is understood from the subject’s standpoint while maintaining that any such account “must be empirically incomplete and inadequate to the plurality of experience.” His 2024-2025 Guggenheim research project articulated yet another significant shift with its focus on artificial intelligence.
One of the most impressive features of Jonathan’s life at McGill was how well he integrated himself into the intellectual communities of Montreal and Quebec and Canada. From the time of his arrival, Jonathan built collegial relationships with scholars in all four of Montreal’s universities, Francophone and Anglophone. Jonathan was endlessly curious about Quebec – about its histories, cultures and character. With characteristic modesty, he found ways to involve himself in the political and social struggles of his new home. Jonathan also sought out local musicians to play with and was a regular speaker at key local events such as the Mutek Festival and POP Montreal.
Even as he became a scholar much in demand on the international level, Jonathan was deeply committed to collegiality and its responsibilities. He chaired his Department, sat on innumerable thesis committees, and was often the first to volunteer for thankless administrative tasks. He took on the difficult task of redesigning the Department’s large introductory course in Communication Studies, then taught it for several years. He was awarded the Principal’s Prize for Excellence in Teaching, Full Professor Category, in 2017.
Jonathan Sterne was a person of incredible decency, respectful of others and committed to the highest principles of inclusion and collegiality. While his principles were clear, he was never doctrinaire about them. Many of those who knew him have noted his enormous capacity to have fun, to be mischievous, to engage with new people and encounter new ideas. He embraced the role of professor, of colleague, teacher and researcher and, while often very critical of the institutions in which he worked, he was committed to the mission of universities as places of public purpose.
Our condolences go to his partner, Professor Carrie Rentschler, as well as to his colleagues, students and many friends.
