Latest News
New four-year Bachelor of Information degree launches!
Applications will open in fall 2026 for the new program, with students beginning their studies in September 2027 The new four-year Bachelor of Information (BI) degree is designed for students who want to understand both the technical and human dimensions of the digital world. The program prepares students to design, build, analyze and improve information […]
MMSt students reveal the costs of over consumption
When staff from the Pickering Library noticed the exhibition that Museum Studies students completed for an assignment in their “Museums and Cultural Heritage: Context and Critical Issues” course, they invited the students to re-install their exhibit at the library, where it is running from March 1 to April 30. This exhibit aims to explore the […]
Where computation meets the world
At a scholarly gathering in honour of the late Professor Brian Cantwell Smith, participants on the day’s final panel looked outward, discussing practice, institutions, and the world Smith’s ideas helped reshape. Framed around “emplaced practice” and moderated by Professor Vera Khovanskaya of the Faculty of Information, where Smith used to be dean, the session brought […]
Reimagining the Bissell Building
More than 50 years after its opening, the Bissell Building, an icon of Brutalist architecture and home to the Faculty of Information, is getting a second act Built to make a statement and stand out on the University of Toronto’s St. George campus, the Faculty of Information’s Bissell Building is slated for a major makeover that will prepare it for the […]
Prof Ebrahim Bagheri on regulating AI
Professor Ebrahim Bagheri spoke to CityNews about how AI companies react when they find troublesome behaviours. Theconversation covers both the need to respect privacy and what steps the Canadian government might take to prevent tragedies like the Tumbler Ridge mass shooting from ever happening again. Listen to the discussion.
Lecturer Profile: Sunita Guyadeen on filling the gaps in higher education
As a lecturer at the Faculty of Information, Sunita Guyadeen aims to provide an education for the “real world.”
Researchers decode 15th-century letter
A medieval missive crossed centuries and continents before University of Toronto researchers, including Faculty of Information alumni, made a royal discovery: it was a decree from France’s notorious “Spider King.” U of T’s Old Books New Science (OBNS) Lab has identified the faded strip of parchment as part of a 15th-century legal letter from the court of […]
Brian Cantwell Smith, a philosopher at heart
While the late Professor Brian Cantwell Smith had bachelor’s, master’s and PhD degrees in computer science from MIT, he was a philosopher at heart, according to longtime colleagues and friends. Speaking on a Metaphysics panel at a “Festschrift” celebration held in honour of the former Faculty of Information Dean, panelists also noted that Smith was well ahead of his time in his philosophical work on how humans relate to machines and artificial intelligence. […]
‘Not on the Exam’ with Prof Silvia Vong
In this ongoing series, we ask our professors not just about their work, but also to tell us about their favourite cuisine and whether they prefer cats or dogs. This latest installment features Assistant Professor (Teaching Stream) Silvia Vong, who is also the Library and Information Science Concentration Coordinator. What courses are you teaching now? I am teaching three sections of INF1321. It’s quite a long title: Representing, Documenting, and Accessing the Cultural Record. That’s a compulsory course for Library and […]
Does AI ‘give a damn’?
“Does AI give a damn?” was the question of the day at a scholarly gathering held to commemorate the work of the late Professor Brian Cantwell Smith, who long maintained that artificial intelligence lacked a human element, and that while AI could “reckon,” it lacked the ability to judge. Echoing his friend, the late philosopher John Haugeland, Smith argued in his 2019 book, The Promise of Artificial Intelligence, that AI couldn’t make judgments because, unlike humans, it was incapable […]
Dean Javed Mostafa at the OLA Super Conference
The Dean joined leading library and information science practitioners to explore emerging trends and gaps in research and scholarship.
Black History Month: The artist as ‘Afronaut’ and historian
As part of their coursework, two BI students wrote about “Otherworld,” a multimedia exhibition presented at the Art Museum at U of T.
The 2026 issue of Informed magazine is out
In the 2026 edition of our Informed alumni magazine, sessional lecturers are in the spotlight. We profile five lecturers who spice up the classroom and the curricula with their unique insights and experience. The magazine also includes the obituary of the late Faculty Dean and Professor Brian Cantwell Smith as well as reports on a […]
‘Not on the Exam’ with Prof Jessica Lapp
In this occasional series we ask our professors to tell us not just about their work, but also to answer other serious questions like whether they prefer cats or dogs. In this instalment, we talk to Assistant Professor Jessica Lapp, a Faculty of Information alumna, who took up her current post in the summer of […]
Kode4Kids wins Ontario Public Service Hackathon
A team of MI students and alumni took home a key prize at the 2025 Ontario Public Service Microsoft Hackathon with their innovative project, Matching Children with Homes. The Kode4Kids team used smart algorithms and interactive dashboards to help service coordinators quickly find the best provider options, turning complex data into actionable insights that support […]
When ChatGPT becomes a teen’s secret friend
While AI has become a routine part of teenage life – used to brainstorm essays and polish assignments – high school students participating in a recent research project discovered a more complex reality when examining how and why teens trust AI tools. The findings showed that students often turned to AI chatbots during stress, describing […]
Student Mini-Exhibits from Curatorial Practice
Stop by the fifth floor of the Bissell Building to explore Master of Museum Studies student exhibits inspired by the theme of home.These works were curated as final assignments for Curatorial Practice course (MSL2000H) taught by Assistant Professor Maggie Hutcheson, and they offer a thoughtful look at how students interpret identity, belonging, and place. On […]
Professor Mark Chignell (1956 – 2025)
Mark Chignell, Professor of Industrial Engineering and the former director of the Knowledge Media Design Institute at the Faculty of Information, passed away last month. Chignell’s research lay at the intersection of psychology, engineering and computer science, and his work advanced the fields of human factors and user interface design. In recent years, his research […]