Culture & Technology (C&T)

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| ARM: Archives & Records Management | C&T: Culture & Technology | CIPS: Critical Information Policy Studies | HCDS: Human Centered Data Science | ISD: Information Systems & Design | KMIM: Knowledge Management & Information Management | LIS: Library & Information Science | UXD: User Experience Design |

C&T Concentration liaison: Prof. Claire Battershill

C&T concentration overview |  Requirements | Suggested electives | Careers in Culture & Technology |

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New technologies continue to influence areas such as genetically modified crops, in-vitro fertilization, cyborg implants and genetic adjustments to the human body.  At the same time, major societal forces are playing a profound role in affecting how science and technology develop.

C&T is designed to allow you to examine how society, culture, and understanding of the human condition influence, and are influenced by, technological development.  It will provide you with the resources needed to understand, integrate, assess, and deploy multi-methodological arguments, in order to develop powerful, balanced, and integrated positions.

Become a specialist who can identify, interpret, explain and shape the socio-cultural impact of technologies at the micro and macro levels.  C&T professionals observe, discover, define, analyze, and assess issues created from the interplay between culture and technology.

Concentration features

• Develop technical, philosophical, and critical skills for the examination of the reciprocal influences of culture and technology.
• Gain an understanding of the multiple ways in which technologies reflect, influence, encourage, support, and enforce social, political, cultural, and economic forces and values.
• Develop critical skills in the design, use, assessment, and evaluation of complex information systems.
• Develop the requisite conceptual, critical, and philosophical skills necessary to take a leading role in guiding social and cultural discussions of the radical and transformative possibilities that are, and increasingly will be, afforded by technological intervention in the physical bases of human life.
• Be exposed to, and trained in, intensive processes of cross-disciplinary peer review

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Concentration requirements

Year 1 required courses:

• INF1005H — Information Workshop I (0.25 CR)
• INF1006H — Information Workshops II (0.25 CR)
• INF1501H — Culture & Technology I (0.5 CR)
• INF2241H — Critical Making: Information Studies, Social Values, and Physical Computing (0.5 CR)
• INF2331H — The Future of the Book (0.5 CR)
  • OR INF2320H — Remix Culture (0.5 CR)
• INF2243H — Critical Histories of Information and Communication Technologies (0.5 CR)

Year 2 required courses:

• INF1502H — Culture & Technology II (0.5 CR)

Electives:

• Complete remaining credit requirements by taking a combination of the following:
  • Elective courses, co-op option, thesis option, or collaborative specialization (5.0 credit)
  • Take a look at our suggested electives

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Careers in Culture & Technology

Students looking to engage in hands-on experience, widen their professional network and engage in professional development should connect with our Careers Services. The Faculty of Information offers a variety of work-integrated learning opportunities such as: MI Co-op option, practicum, Toronto Academic Libraries Internship Program (TALint), job shadowing, and ask-an-alum.

We encourage our students to engage widely in various professional circles and broaden your horizons beyond disciplinary boundaries. Our students, alumni and faculty are members of many professional associations. Our strong ties, built over many years, with these institutions keep us all abreast of the latest trends in the industries. Throughout the year, you may find representatives and members of these associations taking active roles in assisting our students by providing relevant industry insights and networking opportunities. Please visit our Student Experience & Life page on student councils, clubs and associations that our students engage and participate actively in.

With the rapid proliferation of technology and its pervasiveness into everyday lives, a profound examination of the influence of technology on our socio-economic behaviour is increasingly needed now and in the future. From cultural institutions to media, technology firms, government, and other types of organizations, these professionals are paving the way for new careers options.

Who Hires C&T Graduates?

Our alumni work in a wide range of organizations and industries, including: financial services, technology, health care, law, government, marketing and communications, non-profit and more.

Sample employers include: City of Toronto, CreativeWorks Marketing, MacLaren McCann, Ontario Arts Council, Ontario Public Service, Rogers Communications, SiteScout, among others.

Sample roles include:

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