The University of Toronto Mississauga is home to a number of interdisciplinary research clusters funded through the ISI program. These initiatives engage researchers across the tri-campus and build capacity for University of Toronto faculty and students to conduct innovative and impactful large-scale research. Two ISIs – the Critical Digital Humanities Initiative and the Black Research Network – are led by UTM researchers. The Mobility Network, Robotics Institute, and Data Science Institute all have UTM hubs that are headed by Mississauga-based Associate Directors.
Critical Digital Humanities Initiative
The Critical Digital Humanities Initiative (CDHI) enables trans-disciplinary collaborations that emphasize questions of power, social justice, and critical theory in digital humanities research. Its vision is to harness the very tools of the digital revolution to forge a new paradigm of critical humanities scholarship, one that bridges the humanities’ emphasis on power and culture in historical perspective with the tools and analysis of digital technology. The CDHI is a new mix of research workshop and design atelier, equipping humanities researchers with the technical and design expertise to use digital tools to ask new questions, share new knowledge, and analyze power and inequality in historical perspective. The Director of the CDHI is Dr. Elspeth Brown (Historical Studies).
The vision of the Black Research Network (BRN) is to promote Black excellence at U of T and to enhance the research capacity of Black scholars within the university and on the world stage. This includes increasing the visibility of Black scholars’ research accomplishments by sustaining a cross-divisional, interdisciplinary, network of Black scholars and facilitating robust research engagement across the University of Toronto and internationally. The BRN includes U of T Black-identified faculty (research and teaching stream), librarians, postdoctoral fellows, graduate and undergraduate students. The BRN envisions deep connections with Black communities outside of the U of T, and also holds space for non-Black colleagues committed to addressing anti-Black racism to work alongside BRN members to achieve the goals of the network. The Director of the Black Research Network is Dr. Beth Coleman (Communication, Culture & Information Technology).
The Mobility Network is a multidisciplinary, collaborative, and diverse network of mobility researchers that connects the University of Toronto’s exceptional strengths in data sciences, engineering and social sciences to address the technological, social, environmental and health disruptions facing society globally. The UTM Mobility Network hub is led by Associate Director Dr. Shauna Brail (Institute for Management & Innovation).
The University of Toronto Robotics Institute is Canada’s global robotics talent network. U of T faculty working across the frontiers of robotics innovation have a critical mass of expertise spanning the robotics-enabling technologies (sensors, controls, machine learning and AI), robot system integration (perception and control), robot applications (healthcare, manufacturing, and mobility) and their impacts (business, ethical, regulatory, and economic). The UTM Robotics Institute hub is led by Associate Director Dr. Jessica Burgner-Kahrs (Mathematical & Computational Sciences).
The University of Toronto Data Sciences Institute (DSI) is a central hub and incubator for data science research, training, and partnerships at the University of Toronto. Its goal is to accelerate the impact of data sciences across disciplines to address pressing societal questions and to drive positive social change. The UTM Data Sciences Institute hub is led by Associate Director Dr. Bree McEwan (Communication, Culture & Information Technology).