(403) 220-3180
celliott@ucalgary.ca

SS 236

• B.A. (Honours) University of Calgary
• M.A. University of Calgary
• Ph.D. Carleton University

  

  

  

  

Research Interests

1. Obesity and public health: Canada's increasing rate of obesity of a significant public health problem, requiring preventative public health solutions. This project has several components. It 1) explores how obesity is framed as a public health problem in Canada 2) assesses food marketing and its relationship to obesity 3) probes the reception of food/media messages and 4) deals with Canada's regulatory environment when it comes to food. Dr. Elliott's current focus is on the marketing of ‘fun food' food to children in the supermarket, as well as the way that age and gender influences children's negotiation with food and food messages. This research is aimed as creating Canadian policy recommendations for food/nutrition.

2. Taste and Communication: This project deals broadly with theorizing a communication of taste. From marketing Starbucks to ‘creating' connoisseurship or probing the public response to GM foods, the research seeks to develop a more nuanced understanding of taste and how it communicates.

3. Intellectual property and sensorial communication: This project deals with the expanding boundaries of intellectual property rights, particularly trademark rights. Of primary focus is the trademarking of sensory marks; the project deals with the communicative and policy implications of codifying colour, shape and scent.

Dr. Elliott is principal investigator of a Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR grant) on the marketing of foods to children, and she sits on the Board of Trustees of the Canadian Council of Food and Nutrition. Dr. Elliott is co-editor of Communication in Question: Competing Perspectives on Controversial Issues in Communication Studies (Thomson-Nelson, with Joshua Greenberg). She has published in journals such as Canadian Public Policy, Obesity Reviews, Canadian Journal of Communication, Journal of Canadian Studies, Law & Social Inquiry, M/C Journal, Journal for Cultural Research, Consumption, Markets and Culture, Canadian Review of American Studies, Journal of Family and Consumer Sciences, and the University of Toronto Quarterly. 

Recent publications:

Elliott, C. Taste rules!: Food marketing, food law and childhood obesity in Canada. Cuizine: The Journal of Canadian Food Cultures.

Elliott, C. (2008). Marketing Fun Food: A profile and analysis of supermarket food messages targeted at children. Canadian Public Policy, 34(2). 259-274.

Elliott, C. (2008). Assessing fun foods: Nutritional content and analysis of supermarket foods targeted at children. Obesity Reviews, 9. 368-377.

Purple Pasts: Color Codification in the Ancient World. Law & Social Inquiry, 33(1). 2008.

Consuming the other: Packaged representations of foreignness in President's Choice, in K. Lebesco and P. Naccarato (eds.), Edible Ideologies. SUNY Press. 2008.

Big persons, small voices: On governance, obesity and the narrative of the failed citizen. Journal of Canadian Studies, 41(3). 2007.

Pink!: Community, contestation and the colour of breast cancer. Canadian Journal of Communication, 32(3). 2007.

Regimes of vision and products of color. The Senses and Society, 2(1). 2007.

Considering the connoisseur: Probing the language of taste. Canadian Review of American Studies, 36(2). 2006.

Homelessness and Media Activism in the Voluntary Sector: A Case Study. The Philanthropist, 20(2). 2006 (with Joshua Greenberg and Tim May).

Unlabelled: Law, language and Genetically Modified Food in Canada. Canadian Journal of Communication, 31(1). 2006.

Sipping Starbucks: (Re)considering communicative media, in P. Attallah and L. Shade (eds.), Mediascapes: New Patterns in Canadian Communication, 2nd edition. Ontario: Nelson. 2006.

Colour^TM: Law and the Sensory Scan," M/C Journal, 8(4), 2005.
Available at:http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0508/06-elliott.php

Childhood obesity and our ‘toxic environment': Suggestions for future research. Journal of Family and Consumer Sciences Education, 22(3). 2005.

Colour codification: Law, culture and the hue of communication. Journal for Cultural Research, 7(3). 2003.

Crayoning culture: The ‘Colour Elite' and the commercial nature of colour standardization. Canadian Review of American Studies, 33(1). 2003.