Lives Lived
Queen’s remembers Professor Emeritus Vincent Mosco
February 16, 2024
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Queen’s is remembering Professor Emeritus Vincent Mosco, who died suddenly on Feb. 9 in Orlando, FL. He was 75.
Dr. Mosco first arrived at Queen’s in 1984, joining the Department of Sociology, before moving to the School of Journalism at Carleton University. He returned to Queen’s as Canada Research Chair in Communication and Society in 2003, a position he held until 2011 when he retired.
Dr. Mosco grew up in Manhattan’s Little Italy and won entry to Regis High School, one of New York’s most prestigious secondary schools. He then attended Georgetown University in Washington D.C. and went directly into the PhD in Sociology program at Harvard University.
Vincent Mosco, a professor emeritus in the Department of Sociology, also held the position of Canada Research Chair in Communication and Society from 2003 until 2011.
He taught at a number of universities during his career, including University of Massachusetts – Lowell, Georgetown University, Temple University, Queen’s, and Carleton. In 2016 he was appointed distinguished professor at the New Media Centre, Fudan University School of Journalism and Communication, in Shanghai.
He was the author, co-author or co-editor of 27 books and more than 200 articles and reports, mainly focusing on the political, economic and social impact of new communication technologies. His award winning books include The Digital Sublime (2004), The Political Economy of Communication (2009), and To the Cloud: Big Data in a Turbulent World (2014).
He is remembered as a generous colleague, serious scholar, and committed mentor to many colleagues and graduate students. He was an integral part of the Communications and Information Technology research stream in the Department at that time, teaching and supervising many students who have gone on to successful scholarly careers.
“Vinny was a great mentor to me when I first arrived at Queen’s, offering sage research and writing advice and always being available for a lively exchange of ideas. His book The Digital Sublime was published in that year, and was an inspiration in terms of how a political-economic critique could simultaneously be a beautiful piece of writing”, says Professor Martin Hand, current head of the Department of Sociology.
A memorial gathering is planned for later this spring.
