Darin Barney was born in Burnaby, Canada, and studied at Simon Fraser University and the University of Toronto, where he trained in political theory and received a Ph.D. in 1999. He has worked at several universities in Canada and the United States and from 2005-2015 was Canada Research Chair in Technology & Citizenship at McGill University, where he has also served as Chair of the Department of Art History and Communication Studies (2005-2007) and Director of the Graduate Program in Communication Studies (2010-2013). He was President of the Canadian Communication Association from 2010-2012, and served on the Advisory Council of the Law Commission of Canada from 2000-2005. He has received several awards for his academic work, including the inaugural Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada's Aurora Prize for outstanding contribution to Canadian intellectual life by a new researcher (2003).