Katerina Cizek has instigated and co-led ground-breaking research in journalism, advocacy, and the academy. She is currently a Research Scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and has served as a Co-Principal Investigator and collaborator on major research grants in Canada and the U.S. The following bodies of research represent some of her areas of concern, across technology, media, arts, culture, urbanism, human rights, and justice.

Tracking and analyzing the development of deepfake technology, both in its potential for art and advocacy potential, and in its use for exploitation and harm. In partnership with human-rights organization WITNESS.

• JUST JOKING: report
• DEEPFAKERY: six-part web series

Mapping and scanning the possibility of a national AI and Arts initiative in Canada, by looking at the history of art/tech collaboratives in Canada and around the world, and mapping the current ecosystem in the country. In partnership with Dr Richard Lachman and the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.

A four-year study into co-creative practices in media, based on 166 field interviews, and reviews of 250 projects. This research resulted in a symposium, a field study, a book, and the founding of a studio at MIT.

A seven year exploration into the relationships between urban density and virtual life over the internet, primarily resulting in the HIGHRISE documentary project, but also Cizek produced, developed and wrote extensively for print and radio, including:

• Eight-part feature series in The Atlantic;
• Op-Ed in The New York Times;
• Three-hour special episode of CBC Radio Metro Morning broadcast from a suburban highrise in Toronto, winner of a National Broadcast Award, 2013;
• Op-Ed in The Globe and Mail.

Cizek has worked as an investigative journalist and advocate to expose injustices and build evidence in the following selected cases: anti-vaccination movements within health-care communities (pre-COVID); global state-funded anti-migration surveillance systems; the murder of two Indigenous land defenders in the Philippines; and land rights of the Kanyen’kehà:ka (Mohawk) Nations.