Faculty of Information, University of Toronto

We are excited to announce that Associate Professor Beth Coleman has taken over as KMDI Director for a two-year term as of July 1! Coleman is an Associate Professor at the Institute of Communication, Culture, Information and Technology and holds a graduate faculty appointment at the Faculty of Information. She brings extensive academic and administrative experience to this role and will help enhance KMDI’s research impact, increase its cross-sector engagement, and raise the institute’s profile. More on the appointment: https://lnkd.in/dPC-Z-rG

Assistant Professor Rafael Grohmann and PhD student Upasana Bhattacharjee join the 2024-25 cohort at the Queer and Trans Research Lab, Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies. As a Martha LA McCain Faculty Fellow, Prof Grohmann will explore how the concept of queer failure can be applied to understand platform co-ops owned by queer and trans working people and will work on his first book in English, Laboratories of Organizing: Workers Failing and Learning How to Govern Digital Technologies. Bhattacharjee's dissertation “Men, Media, Mohalla: Spatial politics of racialised platform workers in Toronto,” explores how mobility and urban infrastructures become sites and sources for the production of masculinities.

Congratulations to Chido Muchemwa (PhD '23), recipient of a 2023-2024 Governor General's Academic Medal in recognition of academic excellence. Her research fields are critical archival studies, queer African studies and postcolonial studies. In her dissertation, Muchemwa theorized how queer people are defining non-normative sexualities in Zimbabwe by tracing the myriad ways they engage in social negotiations of identity, and the stories they tell. https://lnkd.in/gRRWW9qz

The GLAM Incubator is looking for projects for 2024-25. Submit your idea for a small-scale experimental project in galleries, libraries, archives and museums. Deadline to apply is August 1. The Incubator has previously supported projects at the Archives of Ontario, Fredericton Public Library, Toronto Public Library, Uxbridge Historical Society, Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester Museum and Myseum of Toronto. For more information and to apply, visit https://lnkd.in/gmKEZKVG

Happy Pride! 🏳️🌈 Come to Makerspace for a special community event celebrating queer people and allies! Try out amazing technology like laser cutting, digital embroidery, 3D printing, and scanning. This event is free and open to everyone. Don’t miss out on the fun! Time: July 5th, 1 - 5PM Location: Room BL417, 140 St. George Street (4th floor of Bissell Building)

The 2024 Ian P. Sharp Lecture recording is now available.

Associate Professor Nicole Cohen and Shannon Clarke consider how increasingly pervasive precarity affects women (and particularly racialized women) in digital journalism professions. Read the article in the Canadian Journal of Communication: https://lnkd.in/gGSfsicY

Associate Professor Beth Coleman and PhD student Hiu Fung Chung are members of a new interdisciplinary Schwartz Reisman Institute working group exploring trust in human-machine learning interaction.

Associate Professor Patrick Keilty is cited in this Boston Globe article about the importance of archiving porn. Keilty researches the politics of digital infrastructures in the sex industries and the materiality of sexual media. https://lnkd.in/gCT25m4y

In May, the Faculty teamed up with the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society to host the 2024 Ian P. Sharp lecture, "From ballots to bots: AI's transformative role in democratic societies." Beth Noveck's engaging presentation and a lively audience Q&A made for a fantastic evening. Stay tuned for the lecture recording. Head to tinyurl.com/FoIPhoto to see all the photos from the 2024 Ian P. Sharp lecture.