Patricia Cormack is Full Professor in the Department of Sociology at StFX. She received her PhD in Sociology from York University, specializing in social theory. She researches the place of the Canadian state in everyday life and the state’s role in cultivating nationalism. Her book, written with J. Cosgrave, Desiring Canada: CBC Contests, Hockey Violence, and Other Stately Pleasures, was published by the University of Toronto Press in 2013. She has also studied state celebrity at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, including the Jian Ghomeshi sexual abuse scandal. With M. Lalancette, Dr. Cormack has investigated the role of political celebrity in the 2015 Canadian federal election. Currently, with the recent federal legalization of cannabis, she is studying the provincial state monopoly of cannabis sales in the province of Nova Scotia.
Books
Publications
Cormack, Patricia and James F. Cosgrave. 2013. Desiring Canada: CBC Contests, Hockey Violence, and Other Stately Pleasures. University of Toronto Press.
Chapter Two reprinted in Asquith, K. (ed.) Advertising, Consumer Culture & Canadian Society: A Reader. Oxford University Press. 2019.
Cormack, Patricia. 2002. Sociology and Mass Culture: Durkheim, Mills, and Baudrillard. University of Toronto Press.
Cormack, Patricia. (edited, with general introduction and historical introduction to each manifesto) 1999. Manifestos and Declarations of the 20th Century. Garamond Press.
Peer Reviewed Journals
Patricia Cormack and James F. Cosgrave. (under review). “‘Enjoy your Experience’: Symbolic violence and becoming a tasteful state cannabis consumer in Canada.” Lynda Harling Stalker and Patricia Cormack (forthcoming). “A spectacle of silencing: A rural African-Canadian woman’s media trial.” Cultural Sociology.
Mireille Lalancette and Patricia Cormack. (published on line first, June, 2018) “Justin Trudeau and the Play of Celebrity in the 2015 Canadian Federal Election Campaign.” Celebrity Studies.
Peter Mallory and Patricia Cormack. 2018. “The Two Durkheims: Founders and Classics in Canadian Introductory Sociology Textbooks.” Canadian Journal of Sociology. 43(1): 1-24.
Patricia Cormack, James F. Cosgrave, David Feltmate. 2017. “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Sociology: Goffman, Mills, and Berger. Sociological Review. 65(2): 386-400. [Short-listed for Sociological Review Award for Outstanding Scholarship, 2017]
Patricia Cormack and James F. Cosgrave. 2016. "State Celebrity, Institutional Charisma, and the Public Sphere: Managing Scandal at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation." Media, Culture & Society. 38(7): 1048-1063.
Melissa Horsman and Patricia Cormack. 2016. “A Meaningful Meaninglessness: Canadian University ‘hook-up’ and ‘party’ culture as gendered and class-based privilege.” Gender & Education. 30(1): 119-133.
Cormack, P. and J. Cosgrave. 2013. “Theorising the State Celebrity: A Case Study of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation”. Celebrity Studies. 5(3): 321-339.
Cormack, P., J. Cosgrave and L.L. Harling Stalker. 2012. “Who Counts Now? Re-making the Canadian Citizen.” Special Issue of Canadian Journal of Sociology: Counting and Contemporary Governance. 37(3): 231-252.
Patricia Cormack. 2008. " 'True Stories' of Canada: Tim Hortons and the Branding of National Identity". Cultural Sociology. 2(3): 369-384.
James F. Cosgrave and Patricia Cormack. 2008. “Disenchanted Wonder: Collecting Canadian Identity through the CBC ‘Seven Wonders of Canada’ Project”. Topia: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies. 20: 5-22.
Cormack, Patricia. 2005. "Angels, Bells, Television and Ireland: the Place of the Angelus Broadcast in the Republic". Media, Culture & Society. 27(2): 271-287.
Fawcett, Clare and Patricia Cormack. 2001. "Guarding Authenticity at Three L.M. Montgomery Sites." Annals of Tourism Research. 28(3): 686-704.
Cormack, Patricia. 1999. "Making the Sociological Promise: A Case Study of Rosemary Brown's Autobiography." Canadian Review of Sociology & Anthropology. 36(3): 355-369.
Cormack, Patricia. 1996. "The Paradox of Durkheim's Manifesto: Reconsidering The Rules of Sociological Method." Theory & Society. 25(1): 85-104.
Chapters in Peer Reviewed Edited Collections
Cormack, Patricia. 2011. “Branding and Politics in Canada: The Case of Tim Hortons and the Public Sphere”. In Political Marketing in Canada: The Practice of Political Marketing and How it is Changing Canadian Democracy. University of British Columbia Press.
Cormack, Patricia and Clare Fawcett. 2002. "Cultural gatekeepers in the L.M. Montgomery tourist industry". In Literature and Tourism: Reading and Writing Tourism Texts. Ed. H-C. Anderson, M. Robinson, pp. 169-190. London: Continuum.
Encyclopaedia & Dictionary Entries/Sorter Pieces
Cormack, P. 2010. “Masses”. In, Richard G Smith (ed.) Baudrillard Dictionary. Edinburgh University Press & Columbia University Press: 117-120.
Cormack, P. 2015. “Mass Culture”. In, J. Michael Ryan and Daniel Cook (eds.) The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Consumption and Consumer Studies. Wiley Blackwell: 407-409.
Cormack, P. and M. Lalancette. 2015. “Trudeau as Celebrity Politician: Winning by More than a Hair”. In, Ed. Alex Marland and Thierry Giasson (eds.) Canadian Election Analysis 2015: Communication, Strategy, and Canadian Democracy. Samara/UBC Press.