An Interdisciplinary Doctoral Program
The Faculty of Information doctoral program is comprised of coursework and dissertation components. It allows students to pursue high-level research into the interactions between information, technology, culture, people and communities.
Right in the heart of Toronto, the world’s most diverse city, the Faculty is located at the center of a thriving campus. This provides an inspiring background to engage in influential research into critically relevant questions that bridge aspects of technology and society, connecting theory and practice.
Our doctoral students come from a wide range of scholarly and professional fields to work with faculty from backgrounds matched to their specific research interests in terms of subject matter expertise and complementary knowledge.
The Faculty of Information is known for its interdisciplinary excellence as well as the research partnership opportunities it offers within the Faculty, the University of Toronto and beyond.
Faculty of Information PhD graduates have gone on to play prominent roles in academia, industry, government and the non-profit sector.
The Faculty of Information Offers:
- Excellent career opportunities in a dynamic international research community
- A structured PhD program with innovative curriculum
- Challenging and cutting-edge research projects
- World-leading university in the heart of a vibrant, diverse city
- Individual supervision and mentoring by globally recognized faculty
- More than 70 distinguished and internationally recognized faculty
- Full funding for international and Canadian students
Research Areas
The Faculty of Information currently focuses on several key research areas. These include:
Research Centres
The Faculty of Information is home to a number of research centres, institutes and incubators. Doctoral students often carry out their dissertation research under the auspices of these groups. More information can be found at the links listed below, or by contacting affiliated faculty members:
Academic Requirements
The Faculty of Information’s PhD program is a full-time program. The customary program length for full-time doctoral study is four years. While our PhD program is officially a four-year program, by custom, our Faculty recognizes that five years is an acceptable time to completion and may extend, if necessary, to a maximum of six years. PhD students must be regularly registered in the School of Graduate Studies (SGS) during each year of their program.
To maintain satisfactory progress, a student must:
- Complete the course requirements by the end of Year 1
- Complete all required electives before the Qualifying Exam
- Complete the Qualifying Exam before the end of Year 2
- Successfully defend the thesis proposal and achieve candidacy by the end of Year 3
- Successfully defend the thesis by the end of Year 4
Helpful Documents
- PhD Handbook
- PhD Qualifying Exam Procedure
- PhD Qualifying Exam Report Template (to be completed by Research Advisor)
- Procedure for Doctoral Thesis Proposal and Oral Defence
- Thesis Proposal Defence Report (to be completed by Chair of the Defense)
- Guidance on Timeline for Final Oral Examination
- Doctoral Candidate Pre-Defence/Final Oral Exam (FOE) Thesis Submission Form
- Publication-based Theis FAQs
- Example of Contract
- INF3006Y Contract Template
- Example of Reading Course Syllabus
Doctoral students must complete 3.5 full-course equivalents (FCEs) as follows:
- Knowledge Domain
- Research Methods and Design
- Design, Applied, and Creative Practice
Doctoral students in the Media, Technology and Culture concentration of the PhD program, the 4.0 full-course equivalents (FCEs) must be completed as follows:
INF3001H Research Colloquium 0.5 Credits
INF3012H Social Scientific Methods for Media 0.5 Credits
INF3014H Cultural Interpretive Methods for Media and Technology 0.5 Credits
Course selection to be determined in consultation with the student’s research advisor
INF3009H Theory and History of Media Technology 0.5 Credits
INF3010H Power, Media and Technology 0.5 Credits
2.0 FCEs in elective courses relevant to Media, Technology and Culture (this list of courses will be updated every year)
Students will work closely with an advisor to decide if they should enrol in the MTC concentration. Once a student and their advisor have determined the best path for the student, follow these instructions to select the MTC concentration on ACORN:
- Changes to enrolment in the MTC concentration can be made any time before achieving candidacy.
- Once candidacy has been reached, requests for changes in MTC concentration enrolment will only be considered for exceptional circumstances.
Following coursework, which typically takes two years, students must:
Doctoral students must complete 4.0 full-course equivalents (FCEs) as follows:
Doctoral students in the Media, Technology and Culture concentration complete 4.0 full-course equivalents (FCEs) as follows:
INF3001H Research Colloquium 0.5 Credits
INF3012H Social Scientific Methods for Media 0.5 Credits
INF3014H Cultural Interpretive Methods for Media and Technology 0.5 Credits
Course selection to be determined in consultation with the student’s research advisor
INF3009H Theory and History of Media Technology 0.5 Credits
INF3010H Power, Media and Technology 0.5 Credits
Students will work closely with an advisor to decide if they should enrol in the MTC concentration. Once a student and their advisor have determined the best path for the student, follow these instructions to select the MTC concentration on ACORN:
- Changes to enrolment in the MTC concentration can be made any time before achieving candidacy.
- Once candidacy has been reached, requests for changes in MTC concentration enrolment will only be considered for exceptional circumstances.
Following coursework, which typically takes two years, students must:
PhD Graduates: Where are they now?
Faculty of Information PhD graduates have gone on to play prominent roles in academia, industry, government and the non-profit sector.
Julian Posada (PhD, Class of 2022)
Julian currently serves as an Assistant Professor of American Studies at Yale University where he is a member of the Information Society Project at Yale Law School and the Yale Institute for Foundations of Data Science.
Niel Chah (PhD, Class of 2022)
Niel is putting his PhD to use as a Data Scientist with Microsoft’s Gaming Group. His Xbox team is based in Redmond, Washington but Chah works remotely from his hometown of Vancouver. As part of the data science group within gaming, he’s involved in natural language processing, using statistical techniques and models to help Xbox understand what users are saying.
Admission and Applications
More details about admissions requirements and the application process can be found on the Admission and Applications Requirements page.
PhD Peer Mentorship
The University of Toronto Faculty of Information (FoI) or iSchool PhD Peer Mentorship Program aims to support prospective Ph.D. applicants from communities that have historically been underrepresented in higher education, though it is open to all applicants. This includes, but is not limited to:
- BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) individuals
- Trans*, non-binary, and LGBT+/queer communities
- People with disabilities and/or chronic illness
- First-generation college students
- Individuals from low-income backgrounds
- People from low/middle income countries
Connect with current doctoral students to receive insights, advice, and guidance for preparing an application to the iSchool. Whether you need feedback on your application materials, want to learn more about the program, or just need someone to guide you, our mentors are ready to help you succeed.
Sign up to be a mentee here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdVa6vyKDcFQrlz0-WBTx2jfJ69prO62Ck4XTTPsMD8KcLjSg/viewform
For any questions about the application process, the doctoral program, and living in Toronto, please refer to the FAQ document here: FAQ_Mentees.docx
For any questions about the Peer mentorship program, please contact the Doctoral Student Association at ischool.
Funding
PhD students receive a minimum funding package of $18,500 per year for 4 years, which comes in the form of tuition and fees, a TAship, and Faculty scholarship. Starting in Fall 2025, PhD students receive a minimum funding package of $40,000. In the fifth year, the Faculty pays tuition and fees. In all years, students build on their minimum funding package by receiving RAships, external grants, awards, scholarships, fellowships, and additional TAships from any unit across campus. As students enter their final year in the program, they are especially encouraged to apply for the Doctoral Completion Award.
Awards
Detailed information about awards available to PhD students can be found on the PhD Awards page.
Latest News
Faculty of Information at ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work
Faculty of Information professors and students will have a strong presence at the 27th ACM SIGCHI Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing (CSCW) taking place in San José, Costa Rica next week (November 9-13). CSCW is the premier venue for research in the design and use of technologies that affect groups, organizations, communities, and […]
Congratulations to our newest grads!
The Faculty of Information celebrated its newest grads on October 30. A total of 105 Master of Information students received their degrees alongside one Master of Museum Studies student and five PhD students. Congratulations to all 112 of our Fall 2024 grads. Photos from the ceremony and reception are now available to browse and download.
As Jackman Fellow, PhD student Hassan Asif will explore underground Islamic media
PhD student Hassan Asif, who has just been named a Chancellor Jackman Graduate Fellow in the Humanities, plans to use his fellowship to advance his dissertation, which explores the intersection of digital media, remix culture and Islamic devotional music in Pakistan. His project examines the digital remixing of na’at, which are hymns in praise […]
Virtual influencers in three minutes or less
Congratulations to PhD student Julia Jeonghyun Parke, a top 20 finalist in the SSHRC’s 2024 Storytellers Challenge. This annual contest challenges postsecondary students to show Canadians, in up to three minutes, how social sciences and humanities research is affecting our lives, our world and our future for the better. For her research, Parke tracks the […]