Meet our new professors

The Faculty of Information is thrilled to announce nine new faculty members. Five will be coming on board this summer and the remaining four will be starting in 2025.

“I feel privileged to welcome these highly talented new professors to the Faculty of Information,” said Dean Javed Mostafa. “I am confident we will see exceptional work from all of them in the years to come.”

---

Joel Alleyne – Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, CLTA, Part-time

Start Date: July 1, 2024

Joel Alleyne is a consultant, researcher, entrepreneur and manager, who has worked with many organizations in both the public and private sectors across the Americas and in Europe. In 2003, he was appointed to the Entovation 100 Global Knowledge Leadership Map, which includes global thought leaders and practitioners who shape the new knowledge-based economy.

He is currently Practitioner in Residence with the Knowledge Media Design Institute (KMDI) and a lecturer at the Faculty of Information. He is also a faculty member and Senior Research Associate with the Kaieteur Institute for Knowledge Management.

---

Ebrahim Bagheri – Associate Professor

Start Date: January 1, 2025

Ebrahim Bagheri is an interdisciplinary researcher who focuses on efficient and responsible information retrieval methods, and who has impacted industry, government and civil society through community engagement and knowledge translation. He currently holds a Canada Research Chair in Social Information Retrieval and an NSERC Industrial Research Chair in Social Media Analytics. His NSERC CREATE on responsible AI initiatives is unique in that it highlights the need to balance economic development with social good. He is the Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Network Science and Engineering and ACM Transactions on Intelligent Systems and Technology. In 2019, Ebrahim received the Government of Canada NSERC Synergy Award for Innovation for his outstanding industry-academia collaborations.

He received his PhD from the University of New Brunswick in 2009. He is currently a professor in the Department of Electrical, Computer and Biomedical Engineering at Toronto Metropolitan University.

---

Eric P.S. Baumer – Associate Professor

Start Date: July 1, 2025

Eric P.S. Baumer’s research examines sociocultural dynamics of human interactions with AI and machine learning algorithms, especially language technologies. He has worked in application domains ranging from analysis of political framing, to understanding technology resistance, to the algorithmic aspects of privacy. His work has been supported by multiple NSF grants, including an NSF CAREER award. His research has been published in various journals and conferences spanning the fields of computer science, communication and information science.

He holds an MS and PhD in Information and Computer Sciences from the University of California, Irvine, as well as a BS in Computer Science with a minor in Music from the University of Central Florida, and he held a post-doctoral research position at Cornell University. He is currently an associate professor of computer science and engineering at Lehigh University.

---

Huili Chen – Assistant Professor

Start Date: September 1, 2025

Huili Chen’s research focuses on designing multi-faceted human experiences augmented by socially intelligent machines while integrating approaches from computer science, psychology and design. Her work has been published in top-tier journals and conferences in human-computer Interaction, human-centered computing and other interdisciplinary fields. Her research has been featured in MIT News, Asparagus Magazine and the CODAME Art + Tech Festival. She has also been honoured as one of Forbes China’s 30 Under 30, an MIT Graduate Woman of Excellence, and a recipient of the Learning Innovation Fellowship at the MIT Media Lab.

She completed her PhD in Media Arts and Sciences at the MIT Media Lab in 2023, where she was part of the Personal Robots Group and has continued to work as a postdoctoral researcher. Most recently she has also been a research fellow at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University.

---

Gustavo Ferreira – Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream

Start Date: July 1, 2024

Gustavo Ferreira’s research and teaching practice focuses on advancing the understanding and critical studies of cultural mediations of information and communication technologies. In particular, he researches music circulation and curation as affected by interdisciplinary translations between Audio Media (radio, podcasting, social media and streaming platforms) and Recommender Systems’ design. His scholarship approaches technological critique stemming from cultural studies, the political economy of culture and technology, and information and technology studies while expanding perspectives from Latin-American decolonial communication, global politics of information and sound culture.

He received a PhD in Communication from the Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro in Brazil in 2020 and was a postdoctoral fellow at Mila in Montreal. Most recently he has been the Wolfe Chair Faculty Lecturer in the Department of Art History and Communication Studies at McGill University.

---

Jessica Lapp – Assistant Professor

Start Date: July 1, 2024

Jessica Lapp is a critical archival studies scholar researching feminist records creation, archival provenance, social movement archives, archival labour, protest archives, and the creation and use of digital surrogate records. She has worked as a community archivist on digital archiving projects, some of which feature in her writing. Her SSHRC-funded research has been published in Archival Science, Information & Culture and Australian Feminist Studies.

She received her PhD from the University of Toronto in 2020. Most recently she has worked as a strategic research development officer at the University of Toronto Mississauga, and as a sessional instructor at the Faculty of Information.

---

Evan Light – Associate Professor

Start Date: January 1, 2025

Evan Light’s research centres on democratizing technology and policy for positive social change. A researcher, artist and translator, his works have been exhibited in Europe, the UK and North America. His original writings and translations have appeared in peer-reviewed journals and books in Africa, Latin America, Europe and North America. His research on the use of cellphone hacking tools by federal agencies in Canada led to a recent series of hearings by the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics, where he appeared as an expert witness, and upcoming changes to Treasury Board policies on privacy-invasive technologies. He is also engaged in collaborative research on facial recognition, emerging forms of biometrics and indoor air quality.

He received his PhD from the Université du Québec à Montréal in 2013. He is currently an associate professor and director of the communications program at York University’s Glendon campus as well as director of the Deobfuscating State Surveillance project.

---

Michel Mersereau – Assistant Professor

Start Date: August 1, 2024

Michel Mersereau is a recognized public policy practitioner whose professional expertise, teaching experience and research program focus on the domains of critical policy studies, political economy, digital equity and public policy development. His research focuses on the logistical nature of digital infrastructure, household broadband use, and the political economy of urban telecommunications policy. He is a senior management and policy consultant for the City of Toronto. And in this capacity, he leads research and policy development to support the city’s ConnectTO program, telecommunications regulatory planning, digital equity strategy, universal free public WiFi planning, and Indigenous Data Governance policy planning. He is a member of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada’s (ISED) Scientific Advisory Committee evaluating subsidized broadband programs, and his research has informed policy interventions at both ISED and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.

He received his PhD from the University of Toronto in 2020. He currently holds an appointment as an Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream at the Faculty of Information.

---

Jennifer Orpana – Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, CLTA

Start Date: August 1, 2024

Jennifer Orpana is a photography historian and lecturer with experience teaching topics in photography and museum studies at Toronto Metropolitan University, the University of Toronto, OCAD University, Western University and Brock University. She has worked in education, community outreach, development, and on curatorial teams at some of Canada’s leading arts and culture institutions, including the Art Gallery of Ontario, the National Ballet of Canada and the Royal Ontario Museum. Her writing has been published in RACAR, Fuse Magazine and Trans Asia Photography, and she coedited a Photography & Culture special issue on family photography in 2017.  

She received her PhD in Art & Visual Culture from Western University in 2015. And she recently completed the Nadir Mohamed Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Image Centre, where she studied the photographic practice of twentieth-century studio photographer, Violet Keene Perinchief.