The Citizen Lab is an interdisciplinary laboratory based at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, University of Toronto, focusing on research, development, and high-level strategic policy and legal engagement at the intersection of information and communication technologies, human rights, and global security. Their research includes: investigating digital espionage against civil society, documenting Internet filtering and other technologies and practices that impact freedom of expression online, and examining transparency and accountability mechanisms relevant to the relationship between corporations and state agencies regarding personal data and other surveillance activities. Professor Ron Deibert is the founder and current director of the Citizen Lab.
Twitter: @citizenlab
Comparative Education Policy (EdPolicy) is a multidisciplinary research hub that links academics in political science, public policy, and education, as well as members of the broader policy community. Supported by a SSHRC Insight Grant, they analyze change in education governance over time, the politics surrounding the proliferation of school choice, and the impact of school choice policies on citizenship and political and social inequality across Canada and other OECD countries. Among the projects activities is the Canada School Choice Policy Index (CSCPI), the first index of its kind that measures the development of school choice policies across the Canadian provinces from 1980 to 2020 using eight unique indicators of choice. The team is working to add other OECD countries, including the UK, Germany, and Australia in subsequent phases of the project. The research team includes Profs. Linda A. White, Phil Triadafilopoulos, and Rob Vipond at U of T, along with a number of other faculty colleagues and a number of U of T doctoral students.
Contact: Jim Farney (jim.farney@uregina.ca) Phil Triadafilopoulos (t.triadafilopoulos@utoronto.ca) or Linda White linda.white@utoronto.ca
The Environmental Governance Lab at the University of Toronto seeks to develop new ideas and policy tools to respond to the challenge of environmental governance at multiple scales. Research at the Lab focuses on the political transformations needed for effective and just responses to environmental crises. Lab projects focus on experimentation, legitimacy, accountability, and coherence in global sustainability governance. The Research Centre Toronto is led by Environmental Governance Lab co-directors Professors Steven Bernstein, Matthew Hoffmann, and Teresa Kramarz.
Twitter: @envirogovlab
At the Equity in Education Research Lab we focus on building better futures for children and youth and their families in Canada. The multidisciplinary research team examines how policies, organizational practices and curricula contribute to inequities in early childhood education and care (ECEC), formal education, and youth training in Canada. We do this using our expertise in both quantitative and qualitative research methods, including working with administrative and survey data, along with state–of–the–art data analytics to better analyze care and education inequities and provide critical evaluation of care and education programs and practices that can highlight key shortcomings in service delivery. Investigating these important questions using a range of methods can better inform policymakers about why it is important to invest in ECEC, childhood education and youth training in Canada. We are committed to working in partnership with governments and organizations across Canada to analyze and understand their specific equity issues, pilot and test new ways to help, and develop effective policy to formalize important change. The multi-disciplinary team leads include Political Science faculty member Linda White, UTSC Management faculty member Elizabeth Dhuey, and Applied Psychology and Human Development faculty member Michal Perlman, along with a number of graduate and undergraduate students.
Email: info@equityeducation.ca, equityeducation.utsc@utoronto.ca
The Postcor (Post-Conflict Reintegration) Lab is a research hub dedicated to the study of civil wars and war-to-peace transitions at the University of Toronto. The lab’s activities focus on three core areas: civil war dynamics, transitional societies, and peace durability. It brings together decades’ worth of research and fieldwork experience in civil war environments to study the evolution of insurgent organizations, both during wartime and into the post-conflict period. The lab’s current core project, funded by a SSHRC Insight grant, examines war to peace transitions and insurgents’ reintegration at a global and regional (Southeast Asia) level. Professors Jacques Bertrand and Noel Anderson are founders and co-directors of the Postcor Lab.
Twitter: @postcorlab
Ziibiing Lab is an Indigenous-led research collaboratory focusing on Indigenous politics in unique global, international, and transnational perspectives. The lab’s mission is to support Indigenous peoples, thought, and movements. The objectives of the lab are three-fold. First, uphold Indigenous self-determination, sovereignty, and jurisdiction. Second, advance Indigenous thought on politics, policy, and praxis. Third, defend Indigenous movements for decolonization and dignified life.
Twitter: @ziibiinglab