Dr. MaryElizabeth (“M.E.”) Luka is Assistant Professor, Arts & Media Management, at University of Toronto, where she examines modes and meanings of co-creative production and distribution in the digital age for arts, culture, and media. Dr. Luka is Interim Director of the Knowledge Media Design Institute and a founding member of the UTSC Critical Digital Methods Institute. Luka hosts several open access resources including the sector-sourced resource repository Artifex and the Creative Hubs and Networks database.
Current research includes leading the Cultural Policy Working Group at Archive CounterArchive and activating community engagement at the hyper-local research initiative Urban Just Transitions, as well as working with the international CANUTE network on understanding climate impact. Luka has just completed several SSHRC-funded Expanding Impact roundtables across the country, presenting and sharing knowledge about flexible impact assessment frameworks emerging from the Mitacs-funded Mass Culture Research in Residence: Arts’ Civic Impact research. They recently led policy and scholarly work related to the SSHRC-funded Fair Play: Remuneration, IP Management and Accessibility in the Independent Media Arts Sector, in partnership with independent media arts organizations, and co-produced a swath of outcomes from the collaborative Massive Micro Sensemaking project during the COVID-19 pandemic. Previous research is found in Canadian Journal of Communication; Canadian Theatre Review; Imaginations Journal of Cross-Cultural Images; Public; Qualitative Inquiry; Social Media & Society; scholarly anthologies; and commissioned reports for the Department of Canadian Heritage. Luka has worked with over 100 cultural organizations as a consultant, staff member or advisor and is currently completing the monograph, The First TV Shows on the Internet: How Canada Broke Ground and Lost the Race for Arts and Variety Programming Online, for Concordia University Press.