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Headshot of Dr. Anatoliy Gruzd

Dr. Anatoliy Gruzd

Professor and Canada Research Chair in Privacy Preserving Digital Technologies | Director of Research, Social Media Lab
DepartmentInformation Technology Management
EducationPhD
OfficeTRS 2-071
Phone416-979-5000 x 557937
Areas of ExpertiseSocial Media, Online Communities, Misinformation, Online Social Networks, Information Privacy

Overview

Dr. Gruzd’s interdisciplinary research program aims to advance the public’s understanding of the benefits and pitfalls of social media adoption by investigating how social media platforms are changing the way people and organizations communicate, share (mis)information, and conduct business. Dr. Gruzd specializes in analyzing online communities and social networks, as well as creating novel computational techniques and tools for examining public discourse on social media in various domains. His innovative approach to studying social media has led him to be named a Canada Research Chair (CRC) Tier 2 in 2015 (renewed in 2020), and his induction into the Royal Society of Canada College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists in 2017. In addition to receiving funding from the CRC Program, his research has been supported by all three Tri-Council agencies in Canada: The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, and Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

Undergraduate

Course Code Course Title
ITM 795 Social Media Analytics 

Graduate

Course Code Course Title
MB 8137 Calling Bullshit: Data Reasoning in the Era of Misinformation
MB 8124 Social Media Analytics
  • PhD, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaignm, USA
  • MS, Syracuse University
  • BS & MS, Dnipropetrovsk National University, Ukraine
Recent Publications 
Gruzd, A., Abul-Fottouh, D., Song, M. Y., & Saiphoo, A. (2023). From Facebook to YouTube: The Potential Exposure to COVID-19 Anti-Vaccine Videos on Social Media. Social Media+Society, 9(1), DOI:10.1177/20563051221150403 (external link) 
Wilhelm, E., et al. (2023). Measuring the burden of infodemics: Summary of the methods and results of the Fifth WHO Infodemic Management Conference. JMIR Infodemiology, 3: e44207. DOI:10.2196/44207 (external link) .
Gruzd, A., Mai, P., & Soares, F. B. (2022). How coordinated link sharing behavior and partisans’ narrative framing fan the spread of COVID-19 misinformation and conspiracy theories. Social Network Analysis and Mining, 12(1), 1-12. DOI:10.1007/s13278-022-00948-y (external link) 
Gruzd, A., & Hernández-García, Á. (2022). A balancing act: how risk mitigation strategies employed by users explain the privacy paradox on social media. Behaviour & Information Technology, 1-19. DOI:10.1080/0144929X.2022.2152366 (external link) 
Gruzd, A., & Hodson, J. (2021). Making Sweet Music Together: The Affordances of Networked Media for Building Performance Capital by YouTube Musicians. Social Media + Society, 7(2), DOI:10.1177/20563051211025511 (external link) 
Calleja, N., et. al. (2021). A public health research agenda for managing infodemics: Methods and results of the first WHO infodemiology conference. JMIR Infodemiology, 1(1), e30979 (external link) .
Kumar, P., Gruzd, A., Mai, P. (2021). Mapping out Violence Against Women of Influence on Twitter using the Cyber-Lifestyle Routine Activity Theory, American Behavioral Scientist. DOI:10.1177/0002764221989777 (external link) 
Gruzd, A., Kumar, P., Abul-Fottouh, D., & Haythornthwaite, C., (2020). Coding & classifying knowledge exchange on social media: A comparative analysis of the #Twitterstorians and AskHistorians communities. Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW). DOI:10.1007/s10606-020-09376-y (external link) 
Abul-Fottouh, D., Song, Y., Gruzd, A. (2020). Examining algorithmic biases in YouTube’s recommendations of vaccine videos. International Journal of Medical Informatics 140 (August 2020): 104175. DOI:10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2020.104175 (external link)   
Gruzd, A., Jacobson, J., & Dubois, E. (2020). Cybervetting and the Public Life of Social Media Data. Social Media + Society. DOI:10.1177/2056305120915618 (external link) 
Jacobson, J., Gruzd, A., & Hernandez-Garcia, A. (2020). Social media marketing: Who is watching the watchers? Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 53: 101774. DOI:10.1016/j.jretconser.2019.03.001 (external link) 
Jacobson, J., & Gruzd, A. (2020). Cybervetting job applicants on social media: The new normal? Ethics and Information Technology. DOI:10.1007/s10676-020-09526-2 (external link) 
Dubois, E., Gruzd, A., & Jacobson, J. (2020). Journalists’ Use of Social Media to Infer Public Opinion: The Citizens’ Perspective. Social Science Computer Review, 38(1): 57-74. DOI:10.1177/0894439318791527 (external link) 
Initiatives funded within the past five years Year  Amount 
Principal Investigator: CFI John R. Evans Leaders Fund, Infrastructure Operating Fund and Ontario Research Fund - Research Infrastructure,  “Examining the Adoption and Use of Emerging Privacy Preserving Technologies: From Blockchain to Differential Privacy” 2022-2028 $354,200
Principal Investigator: Canada Research Chair - Tier 2, “Privacy Preserving Technologies”

2020-2026

$500,000
Principal Investigator: SSHRC Insight, “The Rise of Anti-Social Behaviour in Social Media” 2020-2026 $167,781
Principal Investigator: NSERC Discovery, “Studying Human Dynamics at a Massive Scale” 2019-2024 $140,000
Co-Principal Investigator: CIHR Rapid Research/Operating Grant, “Inoculating Against an Infodemic: Microlearning Interventions to Address COVID-19 Misinformation” 2020-2022 $477,683
Principal Investigator: Canada Research Chair - Tier 2, "Social Medi Data Stewardship” 2015-2020 $500,000
Principal Investigator: World Health Organization (WHO), “COVID-19 Infodemic, Fact-checking and Social Media” 2020 $50,000(US)
Principal Investigator: Digital Ecosystem Research Challenge, “Online Violence and its effects on Political Engagement on Twitter” 2019-2020 $50,000
Principal Investigator: Global Affairs Canada Research Grant, “Studying Online Violence Against Women (VAW) on Twitter – Case of India” 2017-2018 $22,951
Principal Investigator: eCampus Ontario, “Learning Analytics Dashboard for the Social Media Age’s e-Learners and Educators” 2017-2018 $99,959
  • Named Canada Research Chair in Privacy Preserving Digital Technologies, Tier 2, 2020
  • Open Access Wall of Fame Award, Toronto Metropolitan University Library, 2020
  • Named Member of the College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists, Royal Society of Canada (RSC), 2017
  • Collaborative Research Award, Ryerson University, 2018
  • Ontario/Baden-Württemberg Faculty Fellow, Research Exchange, 2016
  • Named Canada Research Chair in Social Media Data Stewardship, Tier 2, 2015
  • Best Paper Award, The Internet, Policy & Politics Conference, University of Oxford, UK, 2014

Please visit the Social Media Lab’s Press page (external link)  for a list of Dr. Gruzd’s recent press appearances.