Mike Larsen

Mike Larsen (he / him) is a faculty member in the Criminology Department at Kwantlen Polytechnic University. He lives on the shared, unceded traditional territories of the Katzie, Semiahmoo, Kwantlen, and other Coast Salish Peoples. 

Mike teaches courses on criminal justice, criminological theory, law & society, and crime and media. His research deals with access to information, privacy, and security practices, particularly as they involve the deprivation of liberty and contestations around government secrecy, public accountability, and the right to know. He is a past recipient of the Dean of Arts Teaching Award and the Dean of Arts Service Award, and served six years as the Co-Chair of the Criminology Department and the Chair of the Arts Faculty Council. 

In addition to his role at KPU, Mike is active in the nonprofit community. He is the current President of the BC Freedom of Information and Privacy Association (BC FIPA), a non-partisan, nonprofit society that is dedicated to promoting and defending freedom of information and privacy rights in Canada. You can find FIPA online at fipa.bc.ca.

Areas of Interest

• Freedom of Information
• Surveillance and Privacy
• Law and Society
• Civil Liberties
• Criminological Theory
• Crime and Media
• Security / Insecurity

Scholarly Work

Mike’s publications include the chapter “Indefinitely Pending: Security Certificates and  Permanent Temporariness”, in the edited volume Liberating Temporariness: Migration,  Work, and Citizenship in an Age of Insecurity (MQUP, Vosko, Preston, and Latham, eds.,  2014), and Access In the Academy: Bringing FOI and ATI to Academic Research (BC  Freedom of Information and Privacy Association, 2013).

He has also published articles in The Canadian Journal of Law and Society, Qualitative Inquiry, Contemporary Justice  Review, and the edited volume Surveillance: Power, Problems, and Politics (UBC Press,  2009).

His contributions to the popular press include articles in Embassy Foreign Policy  Newsweekly, a feature interview on CBC’s Sunday Edition, and commentary for the film  The Secret Trial 5, as well as numerous radio and print media articles.

Mike was  previously a contributing author with Prism: The Security Practices Monitor. He is Co Editor (with Kevin Walby) of the edited volume Brokering Access: Power, Politics, and  Freedom of Information Process in Canada (UBC Press, 2012).