Schwartz Reisman Institute announces new faculty affiliates for 2024-25
A new cohort of 15 faculty affiliates has been appointed by the Schwartz Reisman Institute from across the University of Toronto. They bring expertise on the social impacts of advanced technologies and AI innovation from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds.
The Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society (SRI) is proud to welcome 15 new faculty affiliates to its research community for the 2024–25 academic year.
Hailing from a wide range of departments across the University of Toronto, the new cohort of affiliates has expertise in a variety of fields across social sciences, humanities, and STEM disciplines, including geography, psychology, information studies, management, criminology, sociology, history, cultural studies, public health, physiology, pharmaceutical sciences, computer science, and engineering.
Despite their varied research backgrounds, the new SRI affiliates are united in their goal of developing novel approaches to better understand the social impacts, opportunities, and challenges that are being generated by advanced technologies like artificial intelligence (AI).
SRI’s incoming cohort of faculty affiliates are:
LK Bertram, associate professor, Department of History
Ron Buliung, professor, Department of Geography, Geomatics and Environment
Brian Cox, associate professor, Department of Physiology
Joshua Gans, professor, Rotman School of Management
Steve Joordens, professor, Department of Psychology
Vera Khovanskaya, assistant professor, Faculty of Information
Leonid Kosals, assistant professor, Centre for Criminology and Sociolegal Studies
Michael Mack, associate professor, Department of Psychology
Paula Maurutto, professor, Department of Sociology
Keith Pardee, associate professor, Graduate Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences
Martin Revermann, professor, Department of Historical Studies
Zahra Shakeri, assistant professor, Department of Public Health Sciences
Xujie Si, assistant professor, Department of Computer Science
Shana Ye, assistant professor, Department of Historical and Cultural Studies
Yu Zou, assistant professor, Department of Materials Science & Engineering
Get to know our new affiliates:
LK Bertram is an associate professor in U of T’s Department of History, and heads the AI and Humanities Lab at the Critical Digital Humanities Initiative. Bertram’s research focuses on the history of migration, gender, sexuality, and colonialism, and most recently explores how scholars can effectively combat digital disinformation. As the curator of an online public history campaign with 33 million views, Bertram is finding ways to make good data go viral through data packaging processes for video-based algorithmic platforms like TikTok and Instagram.
Ron Buliung is a distinguished professor in the Department of Geography, Geomatics and Environment at the University of Toronto Mississauga (UTM), and the graduate chair of U of T’s tri-campus graduate programs in geography and planning. Buliung’s research is focused on how disability and ableism are produced by and embedded within institutions that govern and create urban spaces, including intersections between accessibility and education, transportation, climate change, and connections between geographic data science, urban space, and equity.
Brian Cox is an associate professor in U of T’s Department of Physiology, with a secondary appointment in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Cox has conducted medical research across academic, industrial, and government laboratories on projects spanning chemistry, biochemistry, and genetics. Since 2012, his research group at U of T has focused on using multi-modal data models to better understand pregnancy, using bioinformatics to identify genetic regulatory mechanisms and to better understand disease heterogeneity.
Joshua Gans is a professor at the Rotman School of Management, with a cross-appointment in the Department of Economics. Gans is also chief economist at the Creative Destructive Lab, and holder of the Jeffrey S. Skoll Chair of Technical Innovation and Entrepreneurship. His primary research focuses on understanding the economic drivers of innovation and scientific progress, including digital strategy and anti-trust policy. Gans is the author of numerous books, including Prediction Machines (2018) and Power and Prediction (2022) with Ajay Agrawal and SRI Research Lead Avi Goldfarb, which explore the economic impacts of AI.
Steve Joordens is a professor in the University of Toronto Scarborough’s (UTSC) Department of Psychology and director of the Advanced Learning Technologies Lab, where he conducts research on third party technologies to assess their efficacy and usability. Trained as a cognitive psychologist, Joordens’ early work focused on human memory and the distinction between conscious and unconscious influences. His recent research explores educational psychology and the effective use of technology to enhance education and support of the development of critical and creative thought.
Vera Khovanskaya is a newly appointed assistant professor in U of T’s Faculty of Information and was previously a CRA/NSF Postdoctoral Computing Innovation Fellow at the University of California, San Diego. Her research investigates the impact of data collection in the workplace, the opportunities and challenges of data-driven approaches to worker advocacy, and barriers to worker-centred and community-driven technology design. As Khovanskaya observes, “My goal is to support workplace activists, organizers, and advocates in accessing and building data tools to accomplish their goals in a sustainable and democratic way.”
Leonid Kosals is an assistant professor at U of T’s Centre for Criminology and Sociolegal Studies, where his research explores the social mechanisms of innovation, including the motivations, values, and interactions of actors, as well as the process of legitimizing innovation in a comparative cross-country and cross-cultural context. In his recent work, Kosals delves into corruption in law enforcement within post-communist countries.
Michael Mack is an associate professor at U of T’s Department of Psychology, where he leads the Mack Lab, a computational cognitive neuroscience laboratory. His research examines human learning by integrating neurobiology and cognitive mechanisms with a combination of behavioural experimentation, computational modelling, and functional neuroimaging. “A central theme in this research is characterizing how computational systems inspired by human neurobiology experience and learn from the world like humans,” Mack explains, “and how emergent computations in these systems reveal the nuances of human cognition.”
Paula Maurutto is a professor in UTM’s Department of Sociology, with a cross-appointment at the Centre for Criminology and Sociolegal Studies, where she specializes in AI in law and criminal justice contexts, as well as issues relating to surveillance, ethics, and equity. In her recent research, Maurutto is examining how the legal and criminal justice sectors are incorporating AI into their practices, and seeking to better understand the risks and ethical implications of AI and its potential to reinforce or challenge existing forms of discrimination.
Keith Pardee is an associate professor in U of T’s Graduate Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, with a secondary appointment at the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering. Pardee is a Tier II Canada Research Chair in Synthetic Biology and Human Health, and the co-founder and advisor of The Pardee Lab, which builds low-cost molecular diagnostics and platforms for biomanufacturing of lab reagents and biologic therapeutics.
Martin Revermann is a professor at UTM’s Department of Historical Studies, with a cross-appointment in the Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies, where he specializes in performance criticism, history and theory of translation, and the history of science, theatre, and religion. Trained as a classical philologist and cultural historian, Revermann’s new research explores how the theatre has been used to communicate novel and paradigm-changing insights regarding science and technology.
Zahra Shakeri is an assistant professor in U of T’s Department of Public Health Sciences, and holds a secondary appointment at the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation. Shakeri is a Tier II NSERC Canada Research Chair in Health Informatics and Precision Public Health, and the director of the Health Information, Visualization, and Equity (HIVE) Lab, where she leads research on AI for public health, clinical AI, and visual storytelling with data.
Xujie Si is an assistant professor in U of T’s Department of Computer Science who holds a Canada CIFAR AI Chair at Mila, and a faculty affiliate appointment at the Vector Institute. Si’s research is focused on automated reasoning, neuro-symbolic systems, and foundational abstractions for reliable and explainable AI. His recent work examines program synthesis and verification with deep learning techniques, learning verifiable correct specifications for neural networks, and interpretable rule learning from perceptual data.
Shana Ye is an assistant professor in UTSC’s Department of Historical and Cultural Studies, with a secondary appointment at the Women and Gender Studies Institute. Ye’s research explores the intersection of feminism, queer studies, and theories of affect and trauma, with a recent focus on how technology and AI are reshaping forms of care work, cultural and political subjectivity, gendered divisions of labour, and the empowerment of marginalized populations.
Yu Zou is an assistant professor in U of T’s Department of Materials Science & Engineering, and leads the Laboratory for Extreme Mechanics & Additive Manufacturing (LEMAM), where his research team uses novel experimental, simulation, and analytical methods to explore new metallic materials with the potential to make significant advancements in aerospace, biomedical, and energy sectors. Zou’s research is supported by a major new grant from the Acceleration Consortium to support self-driving labs which combine AI, robotics, and advanced computing.
Also joining SRI’s faculty affiliate community for 2024–25 are former SRI Director and outgoing Schwartz Reisman Chair in Technology and Society Gillian Hadfield, outgoing SRI Associate Director Peter Loewen, and outgoing SRI Interim Director Kelly Lyons.
As Hadfield concludes her five-year term as Schwartz Reisman Chair in Technology and Society, she joins Johns Hopkins University’s new School of Government and Policy and School of Engineering in Washington, D.C., where she will further extend and amplify her work on AI policy and alignment through a major new investment by Johns Hopkins in data science and AI.
Loewen, who recently led SRI’s Global Public Opinion on AI survey in partnership with the Policy, Elections & Representation Lab (PEARL), will be transitioning to Cornell University, where he has been named dean of Cornell’s College of Arts & Sciences.
Finally, with the appointment of David Lie as SRI’s new director effective July 1, 2024, Lyons concludes her six-month term as interim director, having served in the role following the end of Hadfield’s tenure as inaugural director.
Want to learn more?
Read about SRI’s newly appointed Director and Schwartz Reisman Chairs in Technology and Society.
Learn more about SRI’s 2024 cohort of faculty and graduate fellows.
Explore the full SRI research community on our Who We Are page.
