Kaushar Mahetaji

Kaushar Mahetaji

PhD Student

University of Toronto

About Me

I am a PhD student at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Information, specializing in media, technology, and culture. My research explores how platform companies mediate, negotiate, and contest power in the cultural industries by integrating theoretical frameworks and methods from political economy, information systems, and strategic management. Specifically, I evaluate how social media platform companies use digital tools to manage their relationships with content creators and third parties, including partners, data intermediaries, and advertisers. More broadly, my work contemplates platform labour, the creator economy, and platform governance.

Interests
  • platform governance
  • platform infrastructure
  • platform labour
  • software tools
  • creator economy
Education
  • PhD in Information, 2022--

    University of Toronto

  • MI in Information (Critical Information Policy Studies), 2022

    University of Toronto

  • HBSc in Integrated Science (Biochemistry), 2020

    McMaster University

Teaching

Graduate Teaching Assistantships

Faculty of Information, University of Toronto (St. George)

  • Introduction to Computational Thinking (INF1339, 2023)
  • Representing, Documenting and Accessing the Cultural Record (INF1321, 2022)

Undergraduate Teaching Assistantships

St. Michael’s College, University of Toronto (St. George)

  • Social Media & Digital Platforms (BMS316, 2023)
  • Propaganda and Media (BMS350, 2023)

Institute of Communication, Culture, Information and Technology (ICCIT), University of Toronto (Mississauga)

  • Foundations of Media and Technology Studies (CCT218, 2023)
  • Race, Media and Culture (CCT200, 2023)
  • Media Economics I (CCT219, 2023)
  • Media Economics II (CCT325, 2023)

School of Interdisciplinary Science, McMaster University

  • Investigating Science: Opportunities & Experiences (Science 1A03, 2019)

Guest Lectures

Faculty of Information, University of Toronto (St. George)

  • Writing policy briefs (2023)
  • Identifying and applying discipline-specific writing conventions (2023)
  • Researching, organizing, and writing literature reviews in the information sciences (2023)
  • Designing a workflow for managing readings (2023)
  • Understanding, selecting, and using sources in academic writing (2022, 2023)
  • Email management and communication (2022)

Talks

Gender inferences: Can ChatGPT outperform common commercial tools?
Comparing the performance of commercial gender inference tools and ChatGPT.