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I received my PhD in Visual and Cultural Studies from the University of Rochester in 2003. I completed an MA in Art History at York University in 1997 and a BA (summa cum laude) in Art History at McMaster University in 1995. I have been a faculty member at Laurier since 2003.
I am also a spouse, a dad, an uncle and an avid - if not obsessed - runner.
My research and teaching are based in the areas of visual communication, visual culture studies, and sport studies. I recently finished a book on the history of the photo-finish in sport and am currently working on a SSHRC-funded project exploring self-tracking in endurance sport with specific focus on the Strava app. With this new project I am interested in examining how and why we use self-tracking technologies for health and fitness.
2023-2028 SSHRC Insight Grant, The Self-Tracking Project: Strava and the Structuring of Sport.
2023 Donald F. Morgensen Award for Teaching Excellence: Innovation.
2023 Merit Award, Wilfrid Laurier University.
2017 Merit Award, Wilfrid Laurier University
2015-2019 SSHRC Insight Grant, A Critical Cultural History of the Photo-Finish in Sport.
I am willing to supervise graduate students in the areas of sport studies, visual communication, visual culture and surveillance studies.
Books
Beyond the Finish Line: Images, Evidence, and the History of the Photo-Finish. McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2020.
Editor, Visual Communication and Culture: Images in Action, Oxford University Press, 2012.
Capturing the Criminal Image: From Mug Shot to Surveillance Society, University of Minnesota Press, 2009.
Journal Articles
Antwi, Bright Baffour and Jonathan Finn. "Embracing digital self-tracking for fitness and health: The rise of smartwatches in Ghana's fitness communities," International Review for he Sociology of Sport, 2025, https://doi.org/DOI:10.1177/10126902251357390
Antwi, Bright Baffour, Derrick Charway, Rayvon Fouché, and Jonathan Finn. "The fitness boom and the pursuit of body ideals: domesticating the use of smartwatches in Ghanaian fitness spaces," Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, 2025, https://doi.org/10.1080/2159676X.2025.2475342
"Timing and Imaging Evidence in Sport: Objectivity, Intervention and the Limits of Technology," Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 2016, 40(6), 459-476.
“Anatomy of a Dead-Heat: Visual Evidence at the 2012 US Olympic Trials,” International Journal of the History of Sport,” 2014.
“Surveillance Studies and Visual Art: An Examination of Jill Magid’s Evidence Locker.” Surveillance and Society, 2012.
“Powell’s Point: Denial and Deception at the U.N.” Visual Communication, 2010.
Book Chapters
"The Making of a Non-Iconic Sports Photograph: John Hemment's Salvator v. Tenny." Capturing the Moment. Eds. Maureen Smith, Daniel Nathan and Sarah Fields. Austin: University of Texas. 2024.
“Identification Made Visible: Photographic Evidence and Russell Williams.” The Art of Identification: Forensics, Surveillance, Identity. Eds. Rex Ferguson, Melissa Littlefield, and James Purdon. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2021.
“The Photo-Finish as Sports Media Content.” Sports Media History: Culture, Technology, Identity. Ed. John Carvalho. New York: Routledge, 2020.
“Making the Criminal Visible: Photography and Criminality,” Routledge International Handbook of Visual Criminology Eds. Eamonn Carrabine and Michelle Brown. London: Routledge, 121-134, 2020“Seeing Surveillantly: Surveillance as Social Practice.” Eyes Everywhere: The Global Growth of Camera Surveillance. Eds. David Lyon, Randy Lippert, and Aaron Doyle, 2012.
- CS 100: Introduction to Media History
- CS 205: Media and Sport
- CS 251: Introduction to Visual Culture
- CS 351: Visual Communication and Culture
- CS 400: Senior Seminar (topics include: photography; sport and technology; visual evidence; surveillance; self-tracking
- CS 600: Graduate Seminar in Communication Studies
- CS 650: Visual Communication and Culture in Theory and Practice