Mary-Lynn Young
marylynn.young@ubc.ca
Sing Tao 205
Professor Young is a certified coach, educator, researcher and co-founder of The Conversation Canada, a national not-for-profit journalism outlet. She is a student of the curriculum of life, committed to actions that support future generations. Her professional life includes experience as a journalist in Canada and the United States, an administrator (Director, Associate Dean), professor and leadership coach at the University of British Columbia. She has co-authored two books, including Reckoning: Journalism’s Limits and Possibilities (Oxford University Press, 2020) with Professor Candis Callison. Their book is on the recommended journalism reading list curated by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University. She is completing a co-led seven-year $2.5-million competitive research grant on journalism innovation in 2026. The grant provides research funding for The Conversation Canada, and supports a wide range of projects led by scholars in three countries that examine explanatory journalism and its relationship to policy, Indigenous journalism, audiences, technology and the business of media. Her scholarship has been recognized by a number of UBC Awards, including, most recently, the Killam Faculty Research Award in 2021.
As McLean Chair, Professor Young will research and teach on the contemporary social value of news and changing journalism infrastructure in Canada – in the context of rising news avoidance and an increase in novel sources of information from social media influencers to political YouTube channels. While Chair, Professor Young will teach the senior seminar in Canadian Studies (CDST 450) each year. She will also deliver the McLean Lectures in Canadian Studies, a series of three lectures based on her research.