About me

Dr. Chris Tenove is a Research Associate and Instructor at the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs, and the Assistant Director of the Centre for the Study of Democratic Institutions (CSDI), University of British Columbia (UBC). He is also a Research Associate at the Global Reporting Centre. He previously held research and teaching positions at UBC’s Political Science department, and as a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Toronto’s Centre for Ethics and the Munk School of Global Affairs.

Tenove’s resarch examines on the relationship between digital media, politics and policy-making, with a focus on implications for democracy and human rights. He has published peer-reviewed articles in journals such as International Journal of Press/Politics, Political Communication, Political Research Quarterly, and The International Journal of Transitional Justice. His policy reports have tackled topics including social media regulation, cyber-security, and responses to online harassment.

Tenove received his PhD in Political Science from UBC, and his MA from UC Berkeley’s Department of Rhetoric. For more on his academic background and research, see the Academic Work tab.

In his former life as an award-winning journalist, Tenove’s assignments took him to diamond pits in Sierra Leone, jazz clubs in Bosnia, prisons in Cambodia and jade mines in British Columbia. His features appeared in magazines such as Maclean’s, The Walrus, Canadian Geographic, Adbusters, Vancouver, This Magazine, and Reader’s Digest Canada, and in newspapers such as the The Tyee, Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, and the National Post.

As a broadcaster, his documentaries have appeared on Ideas on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the Radio Netherlands World Service, and This American Life.

Tenove and his family live in Vancouver, Canada. He is a member of the FCC—a collective of globetrotting writers who curate the rare but memorable Emily’s Monkey literary events.