Dr. Elliott is currently involved with three research projects:
1. Obesity and public health: Canada's increasing rate of obesity is a significant public health problem, requiring preventative public health solutions. This project has several components. It 1) explores how obesity is framed as a public health problem in Canada 2) assesses food marketing and its relationship to obesity 3) probes the reception of food/media messages and 4) deals with Canada's regulatory environment when it comes to food. Dr. Elliott's current focus is on the marketing of food to children in the supermarket, as well as the way that age and gender influences children's negotiation with food and food messages. This research is aimed at creating Canadian policy recommendations for food/nutrition.
2. Taste and Communication: This project deals broadly with theorizing a communication of taste. From marketing Starbucks to creating connoisseurship or probing the public response to GM foods, the research seeks to develop a more nuanced understanding of taste, how it functions in society and how it communicates.
3. Intellectual property and sensorial communication: This project deals with the expanding boundaries of intellectual property rights, particularly trademark rights. Of primary focus is the trademarking of sensory marks; the project deals with the communicative and policy implications of codifying colour, shape and scent.
Dr. Elliott is principal investigator of a Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) grant on the marketing of foods to children and also principal investigator of a Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) grant on food marketing in the supermarket. She is co-investigator of an Alberta Centre for Child, Family and Community Research grant investigating the impact of product placement on children. Elliott sits on the Board of Trustees of the Canadian Council of Food and Nutrition, and is an Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Kinesiology.
- B.A. (Honours) University of Calgary
- M.A. University of Calgary
- Ph.D. Carleton University
Communication 601
Elliott, C. (2010). Blue Froot Loops, giggling Dough-Boys and the smell of beer: Why the senses matter. In L. Shade (ed.), Mediascapes: New Patterns in Canadian Communication, 3rd edition. Ontario: Nelson.
Elliott, C. (2009). Kid-Visible: Childhood obesity, body surveillance and the techniques of care. In S. Heir and J. Greenberg (eds.), Surveillance: Power, Problems, and Politics. UBC Press.
Elliott, C. (2008). The strange, the bizarre and the edible: Artificiality and fun in the world of children's food. In J. Greenberg and C. Elliott (eds.), Communication in Question: Competing Perspectives on Controversial Issues in Communication Studies. Thomson-Nelson. pp. 81-88.
Elliott, C. (2008). Consuming the other: Packaged representations of foreignness in President's Choice. In K. LeBesco and P. Naccarato (eds.), Edible Ideologies. Albany: SUNY Press. pp. 179-198.
Elliott, C. (2006). Sipping Starbucks: (Re)considering communicative media. In P. Attallah and L. Shade (eds.), Mediascapes: New Patterns in Canadian Communication, 2nd edition. Ontario: Nelson. pp. 62-76.
Elliott, C. (2002). Sipping Starbucks: (Re)considering communicative media. In P. Attallah and L. Shade (eds.), Mediascapes: New Patterns in Canadian Communication, Ontario: Nelson. pp. 107-119.
Elliott, C. (2009). Canada's Great Butter Caper: On law, fakes and the biography of margarine. Food, Culture and Society, 12(3). 379-396.
Elliott, C. and J. Greenberg. (2009). A Cold-cut crisis: Food-borne illness, legitimation problems and corporate apologia. Canadian Journal of Communication. (In press.)
Elliott, C. (2008). Marketing Fun Food: A profile and analysis of supermarket food messages targeted at children. Canadian Public Policy, 34(2). 259-274.
Elliott, C. (2008). Assessing fun foods: Nutritional content and analysis of supermarket foods targeted at children. Obesity Reviews, 9. 368-377.
Elliott, C. (2008) Taste rules!: Food marketing, food law and childhood obesity in Canada. Cuizine: The Journal of Canadian Food Cultures. Available at: http://cuizine.mcgill.ca/
Elliott, C. (2008). Purple Pasts: Color Codification in the Ancient World. Law & Social Inquiry, 33(1). 173-194.
Elliott, C. (2007). Big persons, small voices: On governance, obesity and the narrative of the failed citizen. Journal of Canadian Studies, 41(3). 134-150.
Elliott, C. (2007). Pink!: Community, contestation and the colour of breast cancer. Canadian Journal of Communication, 32(3). 521-536.
Elliott, C. (2007). Regimes of vision and products of color. The Senses and Society, 2(1). 41-58.
Elliott, C. (2006). Considering the connoisseur: Probing the language of taste. Canadian Review of American Studies, 36(2). 229-36.
Greenberg, J., May, T. and Elliott, C. (2006). Homelessness and media activism in the voluntary sector: A case study. The Philanthropist, 20(2). 131-152.
Elliott, C. (2006). Unlabelled: Law, language and genetically modified food in Canada Canadian Journal of Communication, 31(1). 247-54.
Elliott, C. (2005). ColourTM: Law and the Sensory Scan," M/C Journal, 8(4). Available at: <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0508/06-elliott.php>.
Elliott, C. (2005). Childhood obesity and our ‘toxic environment': Suggestions for future research. Journal of Family and Consumer Sciences Education, 22(3). 47-51.
Elliott, C. (2003). Colour codification: Law, culture and the hue of communication. Journal for Cultural Research, 7(3). 297-319.
Elliott, C. (2003). Crayoning culture: The ‘Colour Elite' and the commercial nature of colour standardization. Canadian Review of American Studies, 33(1). 37-59.
Elliott, C. (2001). Consuming caffeine: The discourse of Starbucks and coffee. Consumption, Markets and Culture 4(4). 369-382.