Faculty

Faculty at the iSchool are participating in groundbreaking, interdisciplinary research that investigates information in its many manifestations. Our researchers are leading the way in shaping the information field.

Periklis Andritsos, Assistant Professor

Professor Andritsos's research focuses on the analysis of large repositories and, more specifically, the structure discovery in order to facilitate design and speed up querying. He has developed a clustering algorithm for categorical data, which has also formed the basis of his novel work on discovering alternative schemas in databases with inconsistencies and errors. His techniques have also been used and patented in the industry.

Matthew Brower, Lecturer

Matthew Brower is cross-appointed Lecturer in Museum Studies at the Faculty of Information and Curator of the University of Toronto Art Centre (UTAC). Past curatorial projects have featured Canadian paintings, the conceptual furniture of Gord Peteran, the video work of Mieke Bal, and contemporary photography influenced by the thoughts of Marshall McLuhan. His research interests include the history and development of animal and wildlife photography, and curatorial practice.

Nadia Caidi, Associate Professor

Professor Caidi pursues research on the information practices of vulnerable communities. She has participated in research projects on the state of information post-9/11 and the information practices of ethno-cultural communities. A recent project saw Professor Caidi help First Nation communities integrate the On Demand Book Service, permitting easy access to reading materials and providing ODBS-related equipment.

Joan Cherry, Professor Emeritus

Professor Cherry conducts research on human-computer interactions and usability, and research methodology and ethics. Her past research studied student perceptions of information studies programs and career tracking systems for library and information science, through projects funded by the Association for Library and Information Science Education and the Institute of Museum and Library Services. She currently investigates the satisfaction rates of Master’s degree program students in six Canadian information schools.

Chun Wei Choo, Professor

Professor Choo conducts research on knowledge and information management, information seeking, organizational learning, and management of information technology. He is principal investigator of the project “Information seeking and use in early warning systems,” funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). Information about Professor Choo’s past and present research, including publications, can be found on his website.

Andrew Clement, Professor

Professor Clement explores the social and public policy implications of the emerging information and communication infrastructure. He examines identity, privacy, and surveillance issues, as well as related public education initiatives. He is a principal investigator for the Canadian Research Alliance for Community Innovation and Networking (CRACIN), funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, and coordinates the Information Policy Research Program (IPRP). More information about his work can be found on the IPRP website.

Juris Dilevko, Associate Professor

Professor Dilevko’s expertise lies in the areas of libraries and readers’ advisory services, collection development, and serials management. He is currently involved in long-term research projects that focus on the Canadian literary culture and the history of school libraries in the United States.

Wendy Duff, Professor

Professor Duff conducts research on archival users, access to archival material, archival metadata, digital curation, and the convergence of libraries, archives, and museums. She has collaborated on a number of research projects recently, including an investigation into the impact of technology on museums, funded by the Canadian Heritage Information Network. Professor Duff is a member of the International Council on Archives Committee on Descriptive Standards and the Encoded Archival Description Working Group. She was appointed director of the Digital Curation Institute at the iSchool in June 2010.

Fiorella Foscarini, Assistant Professor

Professor Foscarini’s research explores the issues of diplomatics, genre theory, and structuration within records management and archival principles and methods. She also maintains research interest in digital preservation, and in the relationship between record keeping and organizational cultures.

Alan Galey, Assistant Professor

Professor Galey researches the history and future of the book, bridging the fields of book history, digital humanities, and critical information studies. He is a member of the Textual Studies team on the Implementing New Knowledge Environments (INKE) project, and was recently quoted in a New York Times story on the open review of scholarly journal articles. More information about his research can be found on his website.

Sara Grimes, Assistant Professor

Professor Grimes’s research interests are children’s media cultures, play studies, and critical theories of technology, with a special focus on digital games, children’s virtual worlds, and online communities. Professor Grimes explores the legal and cultural implications of child-generated content within specific entertainment-driven, do-it-yourself games. Follow Professor Grimes’s research blog, Gamine Expedition.

Jenna Hartel, Assistant Professor

Professor Hartel’s research investigates the nature of information in the pleasures of life. Adopting the ethnographic methodology, Professor Hartel explores the content, structure, and use of information in serious leisure pursuits at the personal and social levels. More information about Professor Hartel’s research can be found on her website.

Lynne C. Howarth, Professor

Professor Howarth’s research interests are knowledge organization and metadata issues. She is working with the Alzheimer Society of Toronto on an SSHRC-funded project to study how individuals with mild cognitive impairment may use multi-modal expressions of information, such as music and photographs, to trigger memory cues for finding, organizing, and using information. She is a member of the Canadian Committee on Cataloguing, the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) Classification and Indexing Section, the IFLA Working Group on Metadata Schemes, and the IFLA International Standard Bibliographic Description (ISBD) Review Group. She holds an affiliation as Distinguished Researcher in Information Organization at the School of Information Studies, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.

Patrick Keilty, Assistant Professor

Professor Keilty's writing examines and critiques culture and technology, digital culture, metadata, and human-computer interaction, with particular interest in feminist and queer engagements with electronic technology, including politics, visual culture, embodiment, stylistics of the self, sexual representation, and philosophy of science and technology.

Cara Krmpotich, Assistant Professor

Professor Krmpotich examines the relationship between museums and source communities, particularly the local significance of museum collections to indigenous communities. She has worked extensively with members of the Haida Nation, conducting ethnographic fieldwork, examining the interconnections between memory and material culture, and exploring the theoretical aspects of repatriation. Her broader research interests are collections management and curatorial practice.

Kelly Lyons, Associate Professor

Professor Lyons' research centres on service science, social media to support human-to-human interactions in service systems, and collaborative decision making. She has collaborated on a number of projects that look at social media and virtual worlds in organizations and collaborative decision making. She has been the recipient of a number of prestigious research grants, including an NSERC Discovery Grant, an NSERC Collaborative Research and Development Grant with SAP, an IBM Faculty Award, and a University of Toronto Connaught Start-Up Grant.

Heather MacNeil, Associate Professor

Professor MacNeil is working on SSHRC-funded research, examining archival description as a rhetorical genre in traditional and web-based environments. Her research interests include the theory and methodology of archival arrangement and description, and issues of authenticity in traditional and digital environments.

Rhonda McEwen, Assistant Professor

Professor McEwen examines information practices that involve new media infrastructures, including social media design, mobile communication, and assistive technologies for communication and peer interaction. She is studying the role of touch technologies for autistic students in the classroom. She has been quoted in The Globe and Mail and interviewed on the CBC Radio 1 program, Fresh Air. More information about Professor McEwen’s research can be found on her website.

Irina Mihalache, Assistant Professor

Professor Mihalache researches the relation between food, taste, and museum practices. More specifically, she is interested in how food spaces – cafes, restaurants, food courts, food carts – located in museums represent alternative pedagogical spaces which contribute to the overall institutional discourse and to the broader education missions. At the same time, the unruly nature of food and taste often creates unexpected dialogues between audiences and the museum. As part of her research, she is developing innovative methodologies and theoretical frameworks in order to comprehend the complex relation between food, museum and audience identities.

David Phillips, Associate Professor

Professor Phillips is working on a SSHRC-funded research project investigating the political, economic, social, and technical configuration of surveillance and ubiquitous computing. His overarching question is whether and how these infrastructures of data exchange and knowledge production can be made amenable to democratic action, non-normative identities and ideals, and queer world-making. His theoretical approach is informed by the political economy of communication, science and technology studies, surveillance studies, and queer theory.

Matt Ratto, Assistant Professor

Professor Ratto is developing critical making methodologies that blend scholarly reflection on critical information issues with hands-on material work. His SSHRC-funded project examines changing notions of labour and expertise in relation to 3D printing and rapid prototyping technologies. His work on the materialization of information has been awarded a grant from the Canadian Foundation of Information and the Ontario Research Fund. He is Director of the Critical Making Laboratory at the iSchool.

Seamus Ross, Professor and Dean

Professor Ross researches the preservation of cultural heritage and scientific digital objects, humanities informatics, and the application of information technology to libraries, archives, and museums. Prior to joining the iSchool, he held distinguished posts as the founding Director of the Humanities Advanced Technology and Information Institute at the University of Glasgow, and as Associate Director of the Digital Curation Centre (UK).

Aviv Shachak, Assistant Professor

An expert in the areas of socio-technical issues and human-computer interaction with biomedical information systems, Professor Shachak is continuing his case study research on end-user support for primary care electronic health record implementation. The first phase of data collection and preliminary analysis of the data have been completed.

Leslie Regan Shade, Associate Professor

Professor Shade's research focus since the mid-1990's has been on the social and policy aspects of information and communication technologies (ICTs), with particular concerns towards issues of gender, youth, and political economy.

Brian Cantwell Smith, Professor

Professor Smith initiated a seven-volume series publication of his major life work entitled Age of Significance, which provides a sustained, systematic philosophical analysis of the foundation of computation and intentionality. He is cross-appointed as Professor in the departments of Philosophy and Computer Science, and is Director of the Coach House Institute, a collaborative, interdisciplinary site for exploring issues in an era of digital mediation.

Siobhan Stevenson, Associate Professor

Professor Stevenson investigates the working conditions within the information economy, particularly at public libraries. She developed a model that attempts to capture the dialectic between the ascendancy of library consumer-producer identity and the diminishment of the public librarian as a skilled, waged, and unionized public service worker.

Lynne Teather, Professor Emerita

Professor Teather’s research interests are the history and philosophy of museums, and contemporary issues in international and national museum development, including computerization and social engagement. She is working on a collaborative project that looks at difficult history and museums by examining the exhibition "Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photographs in America." She has acted as consultant to a number of museums and museum associations in Canada and abroad.

Eric Yu, Professor

Professor Yu’s research focuses on the analysis and design of information systems and services in social contexts, as well as knowledge management. His projects include designing for security and privacy, agile software development, and business modeling for business intelligence. He was the first to introduce the i* framework for modeling and analyzing strategic actor relationships. More information about Professor Yu’s work can be found on his website.