Latest News
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 […]
Faculty of Information takes on CCA 2024
Faculty of Information professors, students and alumni will have a strong presence at the 2024 Canadian Communication Association conference. CCA 2024 is taking place in Montreal from June 18 to 21 bringing together teachers, researchers and professionals from the public and private sectors to promote the investigation of communication, media and technology-relevant issues in Canada […]
Matt Ratto named fellow at new sustainable development think tank
Five University of Toronto scholars, including Faculty of Information Professor Matt Ratto, will be the first to join a think tank focused on “convergence research” to study the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). On April 16, they became Fellows in the SDGs Scholars Academy. The Academy is part of SDGs@UofT. This Institutional Strategic Initiative brings together faculty, […]
Faculty of Information at CHI24: Top international conference on Human-Computer Interaction
Faculty of Information professors and students will have a strong presence at the 2024 ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), the premier international conference of Human-Computer Interaction. CHI 2024 is taking place in Honolulu, Hawaii from May 11 to 16 bringing together researchers, practitioners and industry leaders to showcase some of the […]
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 […]
Professor SA Smythe receives multiple arts awards
Faculty of Information Assistant Professor SA Smythe, who is also a poet and transdisciplinary artist, has recently been recognized with two important awards for artists. Earlier this month, it was announced Smythe, who teaches Black Studies and the Archive, has received a much coveted fellowship from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (VCCA), […]
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 […]
Prof Christoph Becker’s book, Insolvent, makes finals at 2024 PROSE Awards
Congratulations to Professor Christoph Becker whose book, Insolvent: How to Reorient Computing for Just Sustainabilty, published by MIT Press, was named a finalist in the Engineering and Technology category at the PROSE Awards honoring scholarly works. Presented by the Association of American Publishers (AAP), the 48th annual PROSE awards “illustrate the extraordinary depth, breadth and […]
Illuminating the Past
Claire Battershill’s latest research project explores how special collections, often seen as exclusive spaces, can be opened up to the public through new ways of seeing. Claire Battershill, a book history scholar, began her academic journey by pursuing her love of physical manuscripts, but along the way she reached a fork in the road. One […]
Talking sense into Artificial Intelligence
Every week, the researchers in Assistant Professor Anastasia Kuzminykh’s lab get together to update each other on their work. While they are all investigating human-AI communication, there is a wide range of topics. Some of the students are researching how chatbots like Siri and Alexa are perceived by users. Others are exploring the influence of […]
GLAM Incubator seeks new projects
The Faculty of Information’s GLAM Incubator has put out a call for projects for 2024-2025. The GLAM Incubator is a research and support hub that connects galleries, libraries, archives and museums with the University of Toronto and its industry partners to lend resources and expertise to projects benefitting the broader GLAM sector, such as cutting-edge programming, […]
Online hub celebrates Indigenous history, culture and language
The Great Lakes Research Alliance for the Study of Aboriginal Arts and Culture (GRASAC) recently launched a public platform that seeks to benefit Indigenous communities, cultural institutions and scholars alike. The GRASAC Knowledge Sharing Platform houses digital records of 5,000 Great Lakes heritage items and two online dictionaries with 17,000 Anishinaabemowin and Cayuga words. The site catalogues […]
Slow down, Professor Andrew Clement tells AI lawmakers
Professor Emeritus Andrew Clement recently told a parliamentary committee that he doesn’t think the proposed Artificial Intelligence Data Act (AIDA) will adequately protect Canadians. In his testimony late last month, Clement cautioned against hasty legislation, reminding stakeholders that effective governance of AI demands ongoing learning and collaboration, rather than a race to implementation. Clement, who has […]
Artificial Intelligence for Justice Lab celebrates 4th anniversary
The Artificial Intelligence for Justice Lab (AIJ) marked a significant milestone on January 27, 2024, as it celebrated its 4th anniversary. Founded in January 2020 by Assistant Professor Jia Xue, the lab has made remarkable strides in research and training since its inception. In the realm of research, the AIJ Lab has produced 43 research papers, […]
Professor Jia Xue recognized as outstanding young scholar
Assistant Professor Jia Xue has been awarded the 2023 Ivan Sun Outstanding Young Scholar Research Award by the Association of Chinese Criminology and Criminal Justice (ACCCJ). The Award recognizes a young scholar’s outstanding scholarly contributions to the literature of criminology and criminal justice in Greater China or Chinese residents and immigrants and/or their communities overseas. […]
Professor Sara Grimes named Bell University Labs Chair
As the newly appointed Bell University Laboratories Chair in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Professor Sara Grimes is set to spotlight children and their unique experiences with technology. Her research delves into children’s digital play and creativity, children’s rights in the digital environment, and the regulatory and ethical implications of “child-machine interaction,” the emerging study of children’s […]
Professors Snag Connaught New Researchers Awards
The University has recognized four Faculty of Information assistant professors with Connaught New Researcher Awards. Congratulations to Profs Claire Battershill, Priyank Chandra, Rafael Grohmann and Anastasia Kuzminykh. Forty-nine faculty members were recognized across the University’s three campuses. The annual award supports early-stage researchers across a diverse range of disciplines and aims to enhance their competitiveness […]
Ontario Archives gets a GLAM makeover
The Archives of Ontario has enlisted the support of the Faculty of Information’s GLAM Incubator as it looks to break new ground in the Canadian archival sector by doing away with the static and inflexible hierarchies of traditional archival finding aids, which fail to represent the complexity and nuanced reality of record creation, accumulation, use […]