Yo, I'm Keith

I am a multidisciplinary designer and researcher interested in how technology and design can be broadly used to support and empower those at the margins. While my work spans across both disciplinary and geographic borders, I am primarily interested in one central question: how can tech and design help enable more liberatory ways of seeing, thinking, and engaging with the world?

Professional Experience

Communications & Events Coordinator
Mark S. Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies
2023 - 2025
Graduate Research Assistant, Arts & Social Wellness for 2SLGBTQ+ Youth in Scarborough, Ontario
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto
2023 - 2025
Communications & Website Assistant
International Partnership for Queer Youth Resilience
2023 - 2025
Digital Archival Assistant, Treasury for Ethiopian Images
University of Toronto Scarborough
2020 - 2025
Program Manager, Studio for Media Activism & Critical Thought
Toronto Metropolitan University
2022 - 2023
Archival Assistant
Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library
2021 - 2023
Lead Research Assistant, Black Student Experience Project
Equity Diversity Inclusion Unit, Faculty of Information
2022
Research Assistant, Art History Anti-Racist Bibliography
Department of Art History, University of Toronto
2021
Archival Assistant
Sexual Representations Collection, University of Toronto
2021
Creative Director
The Varsity
2018 - 2019

Volunteer Work & Community Involvement

Co-Director, Black Digital Humanities Lab
Jackson State University
2022 - Present
Chair
The Diversity Working Group
2022 - 2023
Vice-President, Academic Affairs
Master of Information Student Council
2021 - 2023
Co-Coordinator
iSchool Peer Mentoring Program
2022 - 2023
Graphic Designer
Hardwire: Undergraduate Journal for Sexual Diversity Studies
2019 - 2021
Project Intern
The Arquives
2019 - 2020

Professional Affiliations

PI, "Archiving Queer of Colour Scarborough" Emerging Project
Queer and Trans Research Lab, University of Toronto
Graduate Research Assistant
FLOURISH Collective, University of Toronto Scarborough
Graduate Research Assistant
Mishritata Lab, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
Student Trainee, International Student Training Network (ISTN)
International Partnership for Queer Youth Resilience (INQYR)
Alumni
Socio-Technical Resistance and Ethical Technologies (STREET) Lab, Knowledge Media Design Institute, University of Toronto

Academic Service

Education

Ph.D. in Urban and Regional Planning
Taubman College of Architecture and Planning, University of Michigan
2025 - Present
Master of Arts, Adult Education and Community Development
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto
2023 - 2025
Graduate Level Coursework in UX Design & Archival Studies
Faculty of Information, University of Toronto
2021 - 2022
Honours Bachelor of Arts, Art History & Sexual Diversity Studies
University of Toronto, Victoria College
2016 - 2019

Publications

Rodricks, D.J., Crisostomo, A., Cheng, K., & Thomson, C. (2024). A Methodology of (Un/Re)Making: A Kitchen Table Conversation with an Early Career Scholar-Educator- Practitioner Collective. Research in Drama Education (RiDE) 2067: The Futures of Drama Education and Applied Theatre and Performance 30(3). [Forthcoming]
Rodricks, D.J., Cheng, K., & Charise, A. (2025). Queering on Paper: Papercraft as a Method for Social Wellness with Racialized 2SLGBTQ+ Youth in Eastern Toronto, Canada. In E. Fitzpatrick, R. Reilly, & Y. Wang (Eds.), The scholarship of making: Craft as method, as knowing, as decolonisation and connecting. [Forthcoming]
Petterson, A., Cheng, K., Chandra, P. (2023). “Playing with Power Tools: Design Toolkits and the Framing of Equity” in Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference.

Conference Presentations

Myburgh, B., Cheng, K., & Roberts, D. (Forthcoming). Navigating Critical Conversations: Advancing Global Learning through Digital Literacy, Dialogue, and Place-Based Collaboration. 2025 AAC&U Conference on Global Learning.
Charise, A., Cheng, K., & Rodricks, D.J. (2025, April 5). Exploring Arts-based Social Wellness with Queer of Colour Youth in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada: A Mixed-Methods Study. Health Humanities Consortium Conference 2025. Philadelphia, PA., United States of America.
Cheng, K. & Rodricks, D.J. (2024, November 22). (Out)side
The Downtown Core: A Mixed-Methods Study of Community Arts-Wellness Programming for 2SLGBTQ+ Youth of Colour in Scarborough, Ontario. Community-Based Research Summit 2024. Vancouver, B.C., Canada.
Myburgh, B., Cheng, K., & Stiff, A. (2024, August 9). Digital Dialogues: Exploring Digital Humanities in HBCUs Through a Kitchen-Table Talk Approach. DH2024: Reinvention and Responsibility, Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations, Washington, D.C., United States of America.
Cheng, K. (2024, June 17). Power to the People: Digital Humanities for/as Community Development. [Conference presentation]. #OTESSA2024: Sustaining Shared Futures. Montreal, QC, Canada.
Cheng, K. (2023, May 12) Afro-Asian Solidarities: Designing Tools for Solidarity. OISE Asian Heritage Month Symposium 2023. Toronto, ON, Canada.

Speaking Engagements

Cheng, K., Rodricks, D., & Charise, A. (2025, April 4). Queer Scarborough ‘On Paper’: Toward a Queer of Colour Archival Practice [Invited Talk]. Queer and Trans Research Lab, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Cheng, K. (2023, December 14). Re-imagining a Community: Our Third Place: Zine Workshop [Public talk/workshop], Faculty of Information, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Cheng, K. (2023, June 8). The Activist-Academic: Resistance in/of the University [Public lecture]. INQYR Rainbow Rendezvous: Queer Research Mixer, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Cheng K. (2023, March 23). Resistant Archives/Resisting the Archive: Zine Making as Anarchive [Guest lecture], RTA893: Social Justice Media, Toronto Metropolitan University, Toronto, ON, Canada.