Cathleen LeGrand

LeGrand's PhD research emerged from her career as a librarian in academic and school libraries in institutions in the Majority World, where she was regularly confronted with impediments to information access.  Her thesis examined the dynamics that shape the contemporary information ecosystem and the practices that make inequity persist. It was based on international ethnographic fieldwork she conducted within and adjacent to libraries in The Bahamas, Bhutan, and Botswana. Her conclusions challenge celebratory narratives of a broadly beneficial digital transition and critique the neoliberal ordering of the media ecosystem. She argues the digital media economy undermines human values such as sharing and sustainability and, using the ecological metaphor of monoculture, makes us vulnerable to crises.  

LeGrand's work draws on the perspectives of people and places that have been historically marginalized and she centres humans within media systems shifting from the analogue and material to the automated and inhuman to understand how humans make sense of and respond to this transition. Her work is particularly relevant to the global debates on equity, inclusivity, and justice and to the agenda to decolonize the field of media and communication. 

As a LAHRI Visiting Fellow, she will undertake several projects. The first is to complete work on a new textbook on international communication that she is writing in collaboration with three media scholars. This new text, under contract for submission in 2026, approaches this widely taught topic from a decolonial perspective and will give voice to global majority contexts, paradigms, and solutions. They hope that the text will influence pedagogy around the world and serve as a significant resource for educators who want to incorporate a decolonial approach in their teaching.  

She will also collaborate in organising an international symposium on platformisation in Africa—which intends to motivate new conversations about the realities of platforms that exploded across the continent—and produce papers relevant to lively topics such as the decolonisation of pedagogy and the success, integrity, and sustainability of the Open Research movement. 

Qualifications:

PhD (Media & Communication) – University of Leeds 

MLS – Emporia State University (Emporia, KS, USA) 

BA (Dramatic Literature, Theatre History, and the Cinema) – New York University (New York, NY, USA) 

Publications

Books

Gangelhoff, C., & LeGrand, C. (2019). Tour de force: A musical journey of the Caribbean. Sound Caribbean. 

Journal Articles

LeGrand, C., Paterson, C., & Wiegratz, J. (2023). Afro-optimism and progressive modernity: The Fintech story in the African press. Globalizations, 1-18. doi:10.1080/14747731.2023.2275816 

Thomas, A., LeGrand, C., & Larson, S. (2021). Emergency response to Hurricane Dorian: Emergent volunteer groups and public-private partnerships. International Journal of Bahamian Studies, 27, 93-104. doi:10.15362/ijbs.v27i1.417 

Wangdi, S., LeGrand, C., Norbu, P., & Rinzin, S. (2021). What’s past is prologue: history, current status and future prospects of library development in Bhutan. Global Knowledge, Memory and Communication, 70(4-5), 339-354.  

LeGrand, C. (2014). “The isle is full of noises”: C Force and musical life in The Bahamas. The International Journal of Bahamian Studies, 20(2), IV 4-8. 

Gangelhoff, C., & LeGrand, C. (2013). Caribbean art music bibliography, Vol.2. The International Journal of Bahamian Studies, 19(2), 1-76. 

Benjamin, L., & LeGrand, C. (2012). Sound and fury: Newspaper coverage of the marital rape debate in the Bahamas. The International Journal of Bahamian Studies, 18, 16-35.  

Gangelhoff, C., & LeGrand, C. (2011). Caribbean art music bibliography, Vol.1. The International Journal of Bahamian Studies, 17(1), 1-59.    

LeGrand, C. (2010). Another look at a Bahamian mystery: The murder of Sir Harry Oakes: A critical literature review. The International Journal of Bahamian Studies, 16, 93-102. 

Encyclopedia Entries

Gangelhoff, C., & LeGrand, C. (2020). Caribbean art music. In A. R. Martin & M. Mihalka (Eds.), Music around the world: A global encyclopedia (pp. 139-141). ABC CLIO.  

Gangelhoff, C., & LeGrand, C. (2020). Quelbe. In A. R. Martin & M. Mihalka (Eds.), Music around the world: A global encyclopedia (pp. 707-708). ABC CLIO. 

Gangelhoff, C., & LeGrand, C. (2016). Alberga, Eleanor D. In H. L. Gates & F. W. Knight (Eds.), Dictionary of Caribbean and Afro-Latin American biography (Vol. 1, pp. 37-38). Oxford UP. 

Gangelhoff, C., & LeGrand, C. (2016). Blackwell, Chris. In H. L. Gates & F. W. Knight (Eds.), Dictionary of Caribbean and Afro-Latin American biography (Vol. 1, pp. 338-339). Oxford UP.

Gangelhoff, C, & LeGrand, C. (2016). Racine, Julio. In H. L. Gates & F. W. Knight (Eds.), Dictionary of Caribbean and Afro-Latin American biography (Vol. 5, pp. 240-241). Oxford UP.

Gangelhoff, C, & LeGrand, C. (2016). Spence, Joseph. In H. L. Gates & F. W. Knight (Eds.), Dictionary of Caribbean and Afro-Latin American biography (Vol. 6, pp. 130-131). Oxford UP. 

Gangelhoff, C., & LeGrand, C. (2016). Walke, Olive. In H. L. Gates & F. W. Knight (Eds.), Dictionary of Caribbean and Afro-Latin American biography (Vol. 6, pp. 319-320). Oxford UP. 

Conferences and Presentations

2024 Media, Communication & Cultural Studies Association (MeCCSA), Manchester, UK   - “Unstable digital inclusion and vulnerability to crisis” 

2023 International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR), Lyon, France - “Persistence of the digital divide: Through the lens of libraries outside the global North”  

2023 International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR), Lyon, France - “Afro-optimism and progressive modernity: The Fintech story in the African press”