Calum Lister Matheson is Chair and Associate Professor in the Department of Communication and a member of the teaching faculty at the Pittsburgh Psychoanalytic Center. His academic work is inspired by traditions in media studies, rhetoric, psychoanalysis, and critical cultural studies. His first book, Desiring the Bomb: Communication, Psychoanalysis, and the Atomic Age (University of Alabama Press, 2019) examined apocalyptic imagination in various media, including film, books, video games, and other forms of simulation. Calum’s current research centers on disinformation, propaganda, and the structure of “outsider” discourses including conspiracy theorists, religious sects, and various reactionary online communities, primarily as they combine forms of mediation through the Internet. Prior to his time as Department Chair, Calum directed Pitt’s debate program, capping off a long career as a university debate coach at institutions including UC-Berkeley, the University of North Texas, and Harvard.

His dog, Ogopogo, is largely unappreciative of refined scholarship in media theory, despite Calum’s best efforts to provide for his education.