Teaching Areas: Media, Social Control, Symbolic Interactionsim, Qualitative Research Methods

Research Areas: Mass Media, Social Media, Popular Culture, Social Order, Social Control, Mediated Interaction 

Dr. Schneider’s research has sought to understand changes in social reality and the human condition attributed to media. He has written or collaborated on nine books and has published over 100 scholarly papers and essays. 

Dr. Schneider has received national and international award recognition for his research and service as well as more than a dozen teaching awards and related honours. Most recently, he was awarded Brandon University’s Alumni Association Excellence in Teaching Award (2026), Brandon University’s Board of Governors Award for Excellence in Community Service (2024) and Brandon University’s Senate Award for Excellence in Research (2022).

His books include Police Body-Worn Cameras: Media and the New Discourse of Police Reform (co-authored with Erick Laming) (Routledge, 2026), Policing and Social Media: Social Control in an Era of Digital Media (2nd ed., Lexington Books, 2024), Doing Public Scholarship: A Practical Guide to Media Engagement (Routledge, 2024), and Defining Sexual Misconduct: Power, Media, and #MeToo (co-authored with Stacey Hannem, University of Regina Press, 2022). Defining Sexual Misconduct received several commendations including the 2024 Midwest Sociological Society’s DistinguishedBook Award in recognition of its substantive and original contributions to sociological understanding. The book also informed a key change to Canadian military policy which removed “sexual misconduct” from military policy replacing it with the term “sexual assault.” 

A frequent contributor to media, his writing, research, and commentary have appeared in hundreds of news segments and reports around the world, including The New York Times and The Washington Post. Dr. Schneider has also published dozens of opinion pieces, which have appeared in USA Today and the Toronto Star, among other outlets. He has consulted with several organizations including HBO’s Last Week Tonight with John Oliver for their 2026 show on body cameras (season 13, episode 3), and ESPN for their 30 for 30 2023 episode on the 2011 Vancouver Riot. In April 2026, Dr. Schneider provided invited expert testimony on body cameras before the Boston (Massachusetts) City Council Public Safety Committee.  

Dr. Schneider previously held the Endowed Chair of Criminology and Criminal Justice (spring term 2019) at St. Thomas University and the Public Visiting Scholar position at Wilfrid Laurier University (fall term 2016). He currently sits on the Brandon, MB John Howard Society Board of Directors. He is president-elect (2027) of the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction (SSSI). He was the vice president of the SSSI (2024–25).

Website: www.chrisschneider.org