Research Areas
Faculty members research a wide range of topics and often collaborate together in interdisciplinary research areas:
- Artificial Intelligence
- Creative, Making and Artistic Practices
- Critical Theory and Social Critique
- Cultural Memory and Heritage
- Data and Society
- Design Studies
- Digital Humanities
- Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums
- Gender, Race and Sexuality
- Global, Transnational and Comparative Studies
- Health Informatics
- Human-Computer Interaction
Research News
Stop drinking water!
Sustainability lab launches provocative campaign highlighting AI’s hidden environmental costs In the halls of the Faculty of Information’s Bissell Building, and as far away as Silicon Valley and Melbourne, a series of unusual posters are sparking conversation and turning heads. The “Save the AI” project, created by Professor Christoph Becker’s Just Sustainability Design (JSD) Lab, uses irony, humour and data to highlight the significant, and often overlooked, environmental and social impact of generative AI. With tongue-in-cheek messages that ask people to conserve water and electricity “for the AI,” […]
Safeguarding justice in the age of AI
An AI Safety Solution Network designed to safeguard courts from synthetic AI content has launched and will be co-directed by Professor Ebrahim Bagheri of the Faculty of Information. The goal of the network, which will receive funding and operate under the Canadian AI Safety Institute Research Program at CIFAR, is to address the rising prevalence […]
Re-writing Romanian History
Museum Studies professor will use Connaught Award to explore how museums cope with political pressure Associate Professor Irina D. Mihalache’s latest research project explores how Romania’s Communist government used the nation’s once-flourishing museum network to impose its political agenda and narratives throughout the country during its 50 years of power. She hopes this work, for which she has received a Connaught Mid-Career Researcher Award, will offer insights and even inspiration to today’s museum and cultural professionals, many of whom now find […]
Faculty of Information at ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work
Faculty of Information professors and students will have a strong presence at the 28th ACM SIGCHI Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing (CSCW) taking place in Bergen Norway from October 18 to 22, 2025. CSCW is the premier venue for research in the design and use of technologies that affect groups, organizations, communities, and […]
Research Events
Research Newsletter
Research Spotlight is the Faculty of Information’s research newsletter, published three times a year. This newsletter focuses on new developments in the Faculty of Information’s key research areas.
Issue No.1: December 2025
Research Institutes
The Faculty of Information is home to three interdisciplinary research hubs – the Knowledge Media Design Institute (KMDI), the Digital Curation Institute (DCI), and the Centre for Culture and Technology (CCT). These institutes are advancing our understanding of the complex relationship between information and society: from KMDI’s pursuit of social justice through human-centered design to CCT’s critical and arts-based approaches exploring how contemporary media shape the human experience to DCI’s investigations of the principles, theories, technologies, and tools related to the creation, management, and preservation of digital resources for future use. Visit the individual institute pages to find out more.
Research Partnerships
Along with the unique opportunities for interdisciplinary research offered within the Faculty of Information, the Faculty, as well as its professors and students, are affiliated with a wide range of academic initiatives, networks and institutes at the University of Toronto. These include:
Faculty of Information researchers also collaborate with a wide range external partners and community organizations. A few examples are:
Student Research
Recent Doctoral dissertations and Master’s theses reflect how graduate students take advantage of the interdisciplinary nature of the Faculty of Information. The wide variety of student research is also reflected in the profiles of current PhD students