Mary Elizabeth (M.E.) Luka
Dr. MaryElizabeth (“M.E.”) Luka is PI and Co-Director of the Creative Labour and Critical Futures (CLCF) cluster and Associate Professor, Arts & Media Management, at University of Toronto, where they examine modes and meanings of co-creative production and distribution in the digital age for arts, culture, and media. Dr. Luka is an internationally-known expert in research-creation, arts-based, and walking methods, as well as a founding co-lead for the UTSC Critical Digital Methods Institute, where they host several open access resources. Luka is an award-winning digital media producer, and has worked with over 100 cultural organizations as a consultant, staff member or advisor. Currently funded research includes Principal Investigator for the three-year Creative Labour and Critical Futures Cluster of Scholarly Prominence at UTSC, using critical and ethical approaches to uncover challenges posed by Artificial Intelligence (AI) as the latest in a series of technological transformations, and for Funding Matters, a SSHRC-funded Partnership Engage Grant with the Toronto Arts Council to examine the impact of the Council. Both projects will show how to catalyze creative labour at individual, society, and collective levels and fertilize more inclusive futures. Luka activates community engagement at the four-year hyper-local research initiative Urban Just Transitions, and extends learnings from such spaces to international networks such as CANUTE to share understandings about climate impact. They lead the Cultural Policy, IP and Rights Management Working Group at the SSHRC-funded seven-year Archive CounterArchive partnership, and recently co-led the SSHRC-funded Archives in Action Symposium, which circulated and discussed research from the last five years on marginalized media archives in Canada. Luka has co-edited special issues for Imaginations Journal of Cross-Cultural Images; Qualitative Inquiry; Culture and Local Governance; and Information, Communication and Society. Previous research is found in the above journals and in Canadian Journal of Communication; Canadian Theatre Review; Public; and Social Media & Society; scholarly anthologies; and commissioned reports for the Department of Canadian Heritage.
