Dr. Beth Coleman

Biography

Beth Coleman is a Professor at the Faculty of Information and a director of the City Platform lab at the Institute of Communication, Culture, Information Technology at the University of Toronto Mississauga. Her interdisciplinary work includes Science and Technology Studies, generative aesthetics, and Black poetics. Her research focuses on the intersections of smart technology and machine learning with urban data and civic engagement, as well as generative arts. She is the author of "Hello Avatar" and multiple articles on the relationship between race and technology. In 2021, she received the Google Artists Machines Intelligence award and is currently a senior visiting researcher at Google Brain, specializing in Responsible AI. Coleman has also contributed to various research initiatives, including her role as a founding member of the Trusted Data Sharing group and as research lead at the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society. She has affiliations with the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, Microsoft Research New England, and the Data & Society Institute in New York. In addition, she served as the inaugural director of the UT Black Research Network and is actively working on an exhibition titled "Speculative AI: Octavia Butler Possible Worlds" alongside her monograph, "Imitation Life: Generative AI in/as Society."

Research Interests

Experience