Here’s an overview of my recent research projects.
Selected Publications
Gillespie, B. (2017). “Media Whining or Democratic Crisis? How Institutional Secrecy is Contextualized in National Newspapers” in Lisa Taylor and Cara-Marie O’Hagan (Eds.), The Unfulfilled Promise of Press Freedom in Canada. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Gillespie, B. (2016). “Edna Staebler and the Lives of Women” in Sue Joseph and Richard Lance Keeble (Eds.), Profile Pieces: Journalism and the “Human Interest” Bias. London: Routledge.
Gillespie, B. (2015). “The Works of Edna Staebler: Using Literary Journalism to Celebrate the Lives of Ordinary Canadians.” Literary Journalism Studies, 7(1): 58-75.
Gillespie, B. (Ed.). (2014). A Family by Any Other Name: Exploring Queer Relationships. Victoria: TouchWood Editions.
Gillespie, B. (2012). “Building Bridges between Literary Journalism and Alternative Ethnographic Forms: Opportunities and Challenges.” Literary Journalism Studies, 4(2): 67-79.
Gillespie, B. (2012). “Clickers in the classroom.” J-Source. The Canadian Journalism Project.
Gillespie, B. (2012). “‘Why’s This So Good?’ No. 29: Andrea Curtis and the rhythm of mercy.” Nieman Storyboard. Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard.
Gillespie, B. and Van Luven, L. (Eds). (2011). Somebody’s Child: Stories About Adoption. Victoria: TouchWood Editions.
Van Luven, L. and Gillespie, B. (Eds). (2008). Nobody’s Father: Life Without Kids. Victoria: TouchWood Editions.
Conference Papers and Presentations
“Best practices for working with journalism students on a national news site.” Toward 2020: New Directions in Journalism Education: Ryerson University, Toronto, May 31, 2014. With Tamara Baluja.
“Personal Writing and Reflection in Journalism Education.” Canadian Communication Association: Brock University, St. Catharines, May 28-30, 2014.
“The Works of Edna Staebler: Using literary journalism to celebrate the lives of ordinary Canadians.” Literary Journalism: Local, Regional, National and Global, The Ninth International Conference for Literary Journalism Studies, The American University of Paris, France, May 15-17, 2014.
“The Structure Puzzle: Helping students understand how to organize and structure research for a feature-length story.” Association of Educators in Journalism and Mass Communication, Chicago, August 9-11, 2012.
“Getting to Know You: Who Are Journalism Students?” Canadian Communication Association: University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, May 30-June 1, 2012.
“Building bridges between ethnography and literary journalism.” Literary Journalism: The Power and Promise of Story, the Seventh International Conference for Literary Journalism Studies. Ryerson University, Toronto, May 17-19, 2012.
“Us vs. them: a discourse analysis of reporting about the Harper government and press freedom.” Press Freedom in Canada: A Status Report on the 30th Anniversary of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms: Ryerson University, Toronto, March 8-9, 2012.
“Best practices for teaching feature writing.” Canadian Communication Association: Concordia University, Montreal, June 1-3, 2010.
“Rethinking the journalist-source relationship.” Qualitatives 2010: Wilfrid Laurier University, Brantford, May 13-15, 2010.
“Developing a critical pedagogy for journalism education.” Canadian Communication Association: Carleton University, Ottawa, June 28-29, 2009.