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Brian Campbell
PhD

Professor

Faculty of Education

Contact information

Education Building Downtown Oshawa
11 Simcoe Street North
Oshawa, ON

brian.campbell@ontariotechu.ca

Bio

Brian Campbell is a sociologist whose interests include higher education, experts in public controversies, technology diffusion/translation, and inequality in modern society. Brian was one of the founding faculty members of Ontario Tech in 2003 when he joined the Faculty of Social Science and Humanities (then Justice Studies) as Professor and Associate Dean. In 2006 Brian became the founding Dean of Graduate Studies and was also Associate Provost from 2009 to 2014. Brian came to Ontario Tech University from the Department of Sociology at Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick where he taught from 1983 to 2003. While at Mount Allison, he served two terms as department head. He has extensive curriculum development experience both at the university- and individual-program level. He has helped to establish over 30 degrees and pathways at Ontario Tech. At Mount Allison he was an architect of the transformation of all undergraduate programs from an area of concentration system to a major-minor system. Brian has been extensively involved in university policy development. His labour relations experience includes negotiating academic sector collective agreements on both the union and the management side of the table. Brian Campbell has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Guelph, a Bachelor of Philosophy degree from the University of York in England, and a Ph.D. from McMaster University.   

Courses taught

Master of Education

  • Emerging Issues in Higher Education - EDUC5199G
  • Foundations of Adult Education - EDUC5401G

Research and expertise

  • Higher education (social class and intersectionality, curriculum development and innovation, differentiation and convergence, quality assurance and accountability)
  • Meritocracy and inequality 
  • Technology diffusion/translation 
  • The credibility of technical experts in public controversies
  • Campbell, B., Pasquale, J., & Hunter, W. (2018). Mission creep, evolution, and metamorphosis: transformations in the early development of UOIT. Universal Design & Higher Education in Transformation Congress. Dublin. 
  • Campbell, B. (2015). Creating Space for workplace and generic skills. Proceedings of the Higher Education in Transformation Symposium (HEIT), Dublin. 467-477. http://arrow.dit.ie/st6
  • Campbell, B. & Henning, A. (2010). Gendered technologies as divide, diversity and distraction. In Dianne Looker and Ted Naylor (eds), Digital Diversity: Youth, Equity and Information Technology. Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press. 2010
  • Campbell, B.L. & Fleming, B. (1996). Access to excellence? The social background of Mount Allison students. In Christine Storm, ed., Liberal Education in the Small University in Canada. Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s. 1996. 56-87.
  • Campbell, B. & Wehrell, R. (1992). Technology diffusion in New Brunswick manufacturing.  Report to the Department of Commerce and Technology, Province of New Brunswick.
  • Campbell, B. (1989). Generalists, practitioners, and intellectuals: the credibility of experts in English patent law. In Brian Wynne and Roger Smith (eds.) Expert Evidence: Interpreting Science in the Law. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1989. 210-36.
  • Campbell, B. (1985). Uncertainty as symbolic action in disputes among experts. Social Studies of Science. 15(3), 429-53.