PhD in Information

Artificial Intelligence

Associated faculty: Anastasia Kuzminykh / Beth Coleman / Brian Cantwell Smith / Christoph Becker / Costis Dallas / Eric Yu / Jia Xue / Julie Yujie Chen / Kelly Lyons / Matt Ratto / Periklis Andritsos / Rhonda McEwen / Safwat Hassan / Seamus Ross / Shion Guha / Tegan Maharaj

Creative, Making & Artistic Practices

Associated faculty: Alan Stanbridge / Beth Coleman / Claire Battershill / Costis Dallas / Jasmine Rault / Jenna Hartel / Maggie Hutcheson / Mary Elizabeth Luka / Matt Ratto / SA Smythe / TL Cowan

Critical Theory & Social Critique

Associated faculty: Alan Galey / Beth Coleman / Brian Cantwell Smith / Christoph Becker / Claire Battershill / Costis Dallas / Jasmine Rault / Marie-Pier Boucher / Matt Ratto / Patrick Keilty / Priyank Chandra / SA Smythe / Sarah Sharma / Thy Phu / TL Cowan

Cultural Memory & Heritage

Associated faculty: Alan Galey / Alan Stanbridge / Cara Krmpotich / Christoph Becker / Costis Dallas / Fiorella Foscarini / Heather MacNeil / Irina D. Mihalache / Jasmine Rault / Maggie Hutcheson / Mary Elizabeth Luka / Nadia Caidi / Patrick Keilty / SA Smythe / Seamus Ross / Thy Phu / TL Cowan / Wendy Duff

Data & Society

Associated faculty: Anastasia Kuzminykh / Aviv Shachak / Beth Coleman / Brian Cantwell Smith / Christoph Becker / Costis Dallas / Eric Yu / Kelly Lyons / Maher Elshakankiri / Patrick Keilty / Periklis Andritsos / Rohan Alexander / Safwat Hassan / Seamus Ross / Shion Guha / Tegan Maharaj

Design Studies

Associated faculty: Christoph Becker / Anastasia Kuzminykh / Costis Dallas / Matt Ratto / Olivier St-Cyr / Priyank Chandra / Sara Grimes

Digital Humanities

Associated faculty: Alan Galey / Claire Battershill / Kenzie Burchell / Matt Ratto / Patrick Keilty / Seamus Ross

Galleries, Libraries, Archives & Museums (GLAM)

Associated Faculty: Alan Galey / Cara Krmpotich / Christoph Becker / Claire Battershill / Fiorella Foscarini / Heather MacNeil / Irina D. Mihalache / Jasmine Rault / Jenna Hartel /
Maggie Hutcheson / Mary Elizabeth Luka / Nadia Caidi / Patrick Keilty / SA Smythe / Seamus Ross / Siobhan Stevenson / TL Cowan / Wendy Duff

Gender, Race, & Sexuality

Associated faculty: Beth Coleman / Claire Battershill / Irina D. Mihalache / Jasmine Rault / Leslie Shade / Mary Elizabeth Luka / Nadia Caidi / Negin Dahya / Patrick Keilty / SA Smythe / Sara Grimes / Sarah Sharma / Sherry Yu / Thy Phu / TL Cowan

Global, Transnational & Comparative Studies

Associated faculty: Alessandro Delfanti / David Nieborg / Fiorella Foscarini / Jasmine Rault / Jeffrey Boase / Julie Yujie Chen / Kenzie Burchell / Nadia Caidi / Negin Dahya / Priyank Chandra / Rafael Grohmann / SA Smythe / Sarah Sharma / Sherry Yu / Thy Phu

Health Informatics

Associated faculty: Aviv Shachak / Beth Coleman / Colin Furness / Eric Yu / Javed Mostafa / Jia Xue / Maher Elshakankiri / Rhonda McEwen / Shion Guha

Human-Computer Interaction

Associated faculty: Anastasia Kuzminykh / Aviv Shachak / Brian Cantwell Smith / Christoph Becker / Eric Yu / Kelly Lyons / Matt Ratto / Olivier St-Cyr / Patrick Keilty / Priyank Chandra / Rhonda McEwen / Safwat Hassan / Shion Guha / Tony Tang

Information Behaviour

Associated faculty: Aviv Shachak / Chun Wei Choo / Colin Furness / Fiorella Foscarini / Jenna Hartel

Journalism Studies

Associated faculty: Kenzie Burchell / Nicole Cohen / Sherry Yu

Labour & Technology

Associated faculty: Alessandro Delfanti / Brett Caraway / David Nieborg / Julie Yujie Chen / Kenzie Burchell / Nicole Cohen / Priyank Chandra / Rafael Grohmann / Sarah Sharma / Vera Khovanskaya

Material Cultures

Associated faculty: Alan Galey / Alan Stanbridge / Beth Coleman / Cara Krmpotich / Claire Battershill / Irina D. Mihalache / Jenna Hartel / Matt Ratto / Patrick Keilty / Thy Phu

Media & Communications

Associated faculty: Alan Stanbridge / Alessandro Delfanti / Beth Coleman / Brett Caraway / Claire Battershill / David Nieborg / Irina D. Mihalache / Jasmine Rault / Jeffrey Boase / Jeremy Packer / Julie Yujie Chen / Kenzie Burchell / Leslie Shade / Marie-Pier Boucher / Mary Elizabeth Luka / Nadia Caidi / Negin Dahya / Nicole Cohen / Patrick Keilty / Rafael Grohmann / Rhonda McEwen / Sara Grimes / Sarah Sharma / Sherry Yu / Tero Karppi / Thy Phu / TL Cowan

Platform Studies

Associated faculty: David Nieborg / Julie Yujie Chen / Kenzie Burchell / Rafael Grohmann / Tero Karppi

Political Economy

Associated faculty: Alessandro Delfanti / Brett Caraway / David Nieborg / Julie Yujie Chen / Kenzie Burchell / Leslie Shade / Nicole Cohen / Rafael Grohmann / Sara Grimes / Sarah Sharma / Siobhan Stevenson

Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL)

Associated faculty: Aviv Shachak / Claire Battershill / Colin Furness / Jenna Hartel / Maggie Hutcheson / Maher Elshakankiri / Malayna Bernstein / Nada Almasri / Olivier St-Cyr / Sarah English / Tao Wang / Velian Pandeliev

Social Media

Associated faculty: David Nieborg / Jeffrey Boase / Rhonda McEwen / Tero Karppi

Software & Systems

Associated faculty: Christoph Becker / Eric Yu / Kelly Lyons / Safwat Hassan

Technology, Sustainability and Social Justice

Associated faculty: Beth Coleman / Christoph Becker / Eric Yu / Matt Ratto / Tegan Maharaj

Youth & Digital Technology

Associated faculty: Jia Xue / Leslie Shade / Nadia Caidi / Negin Dahya / Sara Grimes / Shion Guha

The Faculty of Information is also home to several interdisciplinary research hubs:

• Centre for Culture and Technology
• Communication, Organization of Knowledge, Information Ecosystems (COoKIE) Group
• Critical Making Lab
• Digital Curation Institute
• Human-Centered Data Science Lab
• Just Sustainability Design
• Kids Play Tech Lab
• Knowledge Media Design Institute
• Technoscience Research Unit
• STREET Lab

We encourage prospective applicants to review the current projects in which our faculty are engaged.

The doctoral program is available only on a full-time (4 year) basis.

The Faculty of Information provides 4-year funding packages for all full-time doctoral students.

Questions? Please contact us via email at: admissions.ischool@utoronto.ca

Visit the How to Apply page for detailed application and admission information.

Full-time PhD program

• The customary program length for full-time doctoral study is 4 years.
• All requirements must be completed within 6 years from first enrolment in the program.
• PhD students must be regularly registered in the School of Graduate Studies (SGS) during each year of their program.

In order to maintain satisfactory progress, a student must:

• Complete the core course requirements by the end of Year 1
• Complete all 3 (1.5 FCE) required electives before the Qualifying Examination
• Pass the Qualifying Examination during the 2nd session of INF3006, which is a three-session course
• Successfully defend their thesis proposal by the fall session of Year 3
• Achieve candidacy by the end of Year 3, in compliance with the requirements of the School of Graduate Studies
• Successfully defend their thesis by the end of Year 6 (maximum time limit for full-time students)

Full-Time Sample Timetable

Coursework requirements

Students in the Media, Technology and Culture concentration complete 4.0 full-course equivalents (FCEs) as follows:

• INF 3001H Research in Information: Foundations (0.5 FCE)
• INF 3012H Social Scientific Methods for Media (0.5 FCE) or INF 3014H Cultural and Interpretative Methods for Media and Technology  (0.5 FCE). Course selection to be determined in consultation with the student’s research advisor.
• INF 3009H Theory and History of Media Technology (0.5FCE)
• INF 3010H Power, Media and Technology (0.5 FCE)
• 2.0 FCEs in elective courses relevant to Media, Technology, and Culture (this list of courses will be updated every year)
• Once a student and their advisor have determined the best path for the student, follow these instructions to select the MTC concentration [from Enrolment & Registration > Course Loads > Change of Concentrations via ACORN]:
  1. Under ‘Enrol and Manage’ – choose ‘Programs’
  2. Use the gear-wheel icon to either ‘Add program’ or ‘Drop program’ for the concentration you intend to add/drop.
  3. A prompt asking you to confirm action will appear. Click ‘Add’ or ‘Drop’ to confirm action.

Notes:

• While the Faculty of Information uses the term “concentration” or “Area of Study”, ACORN uses the term “program”.
• Students will work closely with their advisor to decide if they should enrol in the MTC concentration.
• 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.

Students in all other concentrations must complete 4.0 FCEs as follows:

• ​​​INF 3001H Research in Information: Foundations (0.5 FCE).
• A methods course (0.5 FCE): INF 3003H Research in Information: Frameworks and Design or a specific methods course to be determined in consultation with the student’s research advisor.
• INF 3006Y Major Area Reading Course (1.0 FCE) or two additional electives to be determined in consultation with the student’s research advisor (1.0 FCE).
• 2.0 FCEs of elective courses.

The Faculty covers tuition and fees for all students, domestic and international, for the first five years of the program. In addition, a typical student receives a minimum base funding of $18,500 for 4 years, which comes in the form of a Teaching Assistantship (TAship) and Faculty scholarship. In some cases, faculty members use grants to fund a student’s base funding, including tuition and fees, which can exceed the minimum funding. If a student receives a SSHRC or NSERC Doctoral Fellowship of $15,000 or greater, the Faculty provides an additional $5,000 excellence award (for a total of $20,000) in the first four years of the program, which replaces the normal minimum funding allocation. In all cases, students build on their base funding by receiving Research Assistantships (RAships), external grants, awards, scholarships, fellowships, and additional TAships from any unit across campus. These do not affect a student’s base funding package. 

The Faculty pays tuition and fees in the 5th year for all students in good standing. Any student who previously accepted a TAship is guaranteed a TAship in their 5th year and subsequent years. The Faculty does not provide a scholarship in the 5^th year. However, students can apply for a one-time dissertation completion award in their final year of the program. As in previous years, students can receive additional external grants, awards, scholarships, fellowships, RAships, and additional TAships from any unit across campus.

The Faculty is seeking ways to increase PhD student funding. For more information about funding, please consult the PhD Funding webpage.

The Faculty of Information assists with a number of awards and scholarships for doctoral students.

Review our main awards page for a comprehensive list of available awards for our doctoral students. We have highlighted a few below:

• Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship: The Vanier CGS award aims to attract and retain world-class doctoral students by supporting students who demonstrate both leadership skills and a high standard of scholarly achievement in graduate studies.
• PhD Conference Travel Award: The award assists Faculty of Information doctoral students with travel costs associated with presenting original research at a conference or symposium, or to engage in other appropriate scholarly activity at a conference.
• Ethel W. Auster Scholarship for Doctoral Research: This award was endowed by a donation from family and friends of the late Professor Auster. Awarded by the Council of the Faculty of Information Studies, this award is open to doctoral students in their dissertation research.
• Doctoral Completion Award: The aim of the DCA is to support full-time PhD students who are beyond the funded cohort but within the time limit for the degree.

Please see our Awards and Scholarships page.

Please email admissions.ischool@utoronto.ca for information about admissions.