Wilhelm Peekhaus

Education

• PhD, 2008, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada
• MLIS, 2003, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
• BA (Joint Honors), Political Science and History, 1992, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Brief Bio | Research Interests

Dr. Peekhaus’s research falls broadly within the field of information policy and typically adopts a Marxist political economic perspective. His work around biotechnology has been most interested in interrogating the material and the immaterial aspects of this technoscience, as well as their interconnections. His work around open access and academic publishing has been both theoretical and empirical. The more conceptually-focused work interrogates various aspects of and tensions that inhere in contemporary academic publishing. The more empirically-focused and quantitative aspects of this research analyzes North American LIS faculty attitudes toward and experience with open-access publishing. In other work he has examined access to government information, with a focus on South Africa. Another strand of research examines seed libraries. One of his most recent research agendas focuses on the life cycle of information and communication technology (ICT), with a particular focus on electronic waste.

Prior to joining the SOIS faculty, Dr. Peekhaus was the 2010-2011 postdoctoral fellow with the Center for Information Policy Research (CIPR) at SOIS, and between 2008-2010 he was an Information in Society Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Graduate School of Library & Information Science, University of Illinois, Champaign, Illinois.

Courses Taught

120 Information Technology Ethics
660 Information Policy
661 Ethics and the Information Society
799 Research Methods in Information Studies
891 (Anti)Political Economy of Information and Communication
960 Doctoral Seminar in Information Policy

Sample Publications

Selected Works of Wilhelm Peekhaus:
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Wilhelm_Peekhaus/research

Books:

Peekhaus, W. (2013). Resistance is fertile: Canadian biotechnology policy and struggles on the biocommons. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.

Articles:

Peekhaus, W. (2017). Open access among Canadian Library and Information Science Faculty / L’accès libre dans la communauté de bibliothéconomie et des sciences de l’information au Canada. Canadian Journal of Information and Library Science, 41, 105-146.

Peekhaus, W., & Proferes, N. (2016). An examination of North American library and information studies faculty perceptions of and experience with open-access scholarly publishing. Library & Information Science Research, 38, 18-29.

Peekhaus, W., & Proferes, N. (2015). How library and information science faculty perceive and engage with open access. Journal of Information Science, 41, 640-661.

Peekhaus, W. (2014). South Africa’s Promotion of Access to Information Act: An analysis of relevant jurisprudence. Journal of Information Policy, 14, 570-596.

Peekhaus, W. (2014). Digital content delivery in higher education: Expanded mechanisms for subordinating the professoriate and academic precariat. International Review of Information Ethics, 21, 57-63.

Peekhaus, W. (2012). The enclosure and alienation of academic publishing: Lessons for the professoriate. tripleC - Communication, Capitalism & Critique, 10(2), 577-599.

Peekhaus, W. (2011). Biowatch South Africa and the challenges in enforcing its constitutional right to access to information. Government Information Quarterly, 28, 542-552.

Peekhaus, W. (2011). Primitive accumulation and enclosure of the commons: Genetically engineered seeds and Canadian jurisprudence. Science & Society, 75, 529-554.

Peekhaus, W. (2010). The neo-liberal university and agricultural biotechnology: Reports from the field. Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society, 30, 415-429.

Peekhaus, W. (2010). Monsanto discovers new social media. International Journal of Communication, 4, 955-976.

Peekhaus, W. (2008). Personal health information in Canada: A comparison of citizen expectations and legislation. Government Information Quarterly, 25, 669-698.

Peekhaus, W. (2008). Research in the biotech age: Can informational privacy compete? Bulletin of Science, Technology, and Society, 28, 48-59.

Peekhaus, W. (2007). Privacy for sale - Business as usual in the 21st century: An economic and normative critique. Journal of Information Ethics, 16, 83-98.

Peekhaus, W. (2006). Personal medical information: Privacy or personal data protection? A theoretical approach to understanding the Canadian environment. Canadian Journal of Law & Technology, 5, 87-106.

Book Chapters:

Peekhaus, W. (2016). Biotechnology. In K. B. Jensen, R. T. Craig, J. Pooley & E. Rothenbuhler (Eds.), International encyclopedia of communication theory and philosophy (Vol. 1, pp. 194-199). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell.

Peekhaus, W. (2016). Conceptualising and subverting the capitalist academic publishing model. In C. Fuchs & V. Mosco (Eds.), Marx and the political economy of the media (pp. 363-406). Leiden, Netherlands: Brill.

Peekhaus, W. (2011). Regulating agricultural biotechnology in Canada: Paradoxes and conflicts of a closed system. In L. Tepperman & A. Kalyta (Eds.), Reading sociology (2nd ed., pp. 343-348). Toronto: Oxford University Press.