Research

Professor Caidi’s work is situated in the context of global migration and the role that information resources, institutions, and technologies play in the everyday lives of diasporic communities as well as the implications for the receiving countries. She is interested in how migrants and displaced people negotiate the multiple and overlapping local and transnational information environments they navigate, and how these processes come to embody new kinds of knowledge. Within this framework, she pursues several lines of research (briefly introduced below, with selected publications).

Dr. Caidi is a Faculty Affiliate with the School of Cities, and a member of the Data Sciences Institute, at the University of Toronto.

Students & Visiting Fellows: Do you have insights or experiences in these areas and want to join Prof. Caidi’s research team? If so, reach out for a chance to join our Research Lab on Information Cultures/Laboratoire de Recherches en Cultures Informationnelles (ReLIC/LaRCI).

  • Misinformation in Times of Pandemic: In a post-COVID recovery strategy, as well as in preparing the stage for any future major health crisis, it is critical to understand better how misinformation spreads into communities, and the strategies to effectively deploy messaging in a range of platforms to inform and engage communities.
  • Immigrant Women in STEM: interactions, policies and practices that support migrants’ labor market integration, social inclusion and contributions to Canadian society.
  • Digital Diasporas: digital and social media uses by migrants/displaced people and the related dynamic processes of identity construction and transnational community building;
  • Diversity by Design: the extent to which diverse communities make use of public cultural (and memory) institutions, as well as how these institutions’ values, tools, and practices  are altered in light of the changing demographic realities.
  • Encounters of the Spiritual Kind: Young Muslims and/in Social Media: emergent practices of young people’s expressions of spiritual and religious identities online, specifically the contemporary manifestations of the pilgrimage tradition, as well as the fasting of Ramadan during the COVID pandemic.

[Scroll down the page for an overview of the different research projects].

Misinformation in Times of Pandemic

  • Academic Lead for a Public Health Agency of Canada-funded project on “Vaccination, Misinformation and Digital Media: Mobilizing Newcomer Information Practices for Effective COVID Communications” (2021-2023). [Lead Community Partner: Refugee613].
  • Collaborator, Toronto COVID-19 Action Initiative on “Toronto Emergency Device Accelerator” (Sub-project on user needs and access for language group communities) (2020-2021).

Recent media interventions:

Information for Social and Economic Inclusion: Labor Struggles of Immigrant Women in STEM

In cooperation with Saadia Muzaffar, co-founder TechGirls Canada. I also serve as the Academic Lead at TechGirls Canada.

Funding Sources: 1) The Department of Women And Gender Equality (WAGE); 2) MITACS Accelerate; 3) the Institute of Gender + The Economy (GATE) at the Rotman School of Management.

Among university graduates in Canada aged 25 to 34, immigrant women are twice as likely to have a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) degree as Canadian-born women (23% versus 13%). Yet, immigrant women face some of the highest levels of labour market challenges in Canada across indicators, including: unemployment rate, wage gap, part-time employment, and low-income rate. We seek to document the complex gendered “work-finding” hurdles for immigrant women in STEM fields in order to begin examining the Loss on Investment (LOI) being absorbed by the Canadian economy due to this untapped talent.

Caidi_Muzaffar_GATE (Source: GATE Institute)

STEMfilm

STEM_Report

  • MITACS-Scotiabank Economic Resilience Research Fund for “Investing in Recovery: Strengthening Employer and Policy Roles in Labour Market Integration of Canada’s Immigrant Women in STEM.” Partner: TechGirls Canada. (2021-2022).
  • Muzaffar, S., Caidi, N., & B. Sivagnanasunderam. (2020). Workfinding and Immigrant Women’s Prosperity in STEM: A Pan-Canadian Report. Report to Stakeholder (Women and Gender Equality Canada). July 2020. (39 pages).
  • Check our curated online exhibit: “Five Journeys: STEM-Educated Immigrant Women in Canada.” (resident curator: Ms. Randa Turkan), 2019.
  • Muzaffar, S. (2017). Bait-and-Switch of a Canadian Dream. Report to the Canadian Center of Policy Alternatives. Available at: 
  • Rayes, W., Martin‐Hammond, A., Komlodi, A., Caidi, N., & Sundin, N. (2016). An informed transition? International medical graduates settling in the united states and canada. Proceedings of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 53(1), 1-7.
  • Komlodi, A., & Caidi, N. (2016). Learning in Second-Language Searching. In SAL@ SIGIR.
  • Komlodi, A., Caidi, N., Martin-Hammond, A., Rayes, W., & Sundin, N. (2016). Culturally-Situated Information Literacy: International Medical Graduates Navigating New Information Landscapes. Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Culture, Technology, Communication (CATAC): London, UK. In van der Velden, M., Strano, M., Hrachvec, H., Abdelnour Nocera, J., & Ess. C. (Eds.). (Pp. 105-110).
  • Caidi, N., Komlodi, A., Abrao, A. L., & Martin-Hammond, A. (2014). Collectively figuring it out: Foreign-trained health professionals and labor market integration. LIBRES: Library and Information Science Research Electronic Journal, 24(2), 118.

Digital Diasporas (Selected publications)

My research team and I have researched and documented an array of newcomer experiences, using a community-engaged approach. Below is a selected list of the publications/resources stemming from this collaborative work.

Diversity by Design: Reframing Diversity Discourse in Canada

This research seeks to expand on the meanings and values of diversity, with an eye toward reconceptualizing it as a powerful force for advancing and reshaping the information professions. Together with Dr. Keren Dali (Denver U.), we have examined the attractiveness of LIS careers to students and alumni stemming from diverse backgrounds, the diversity of LIS professions, and the significant disconnect that persists in how the goals of LIS education are seen by various stakeholders. Our 2017 article, ‘Diversity by Design’ was awarded the ALA’s 2018 David Cohen/EMIERT Multicultural Award. We organized an international symposium on Diversity by Design on Sep 13-14, 2017 (picture below). Along with a Special Issue of IJIDI on the topic, we also have a forthcoming book that examines these issues and their relevance for LIS education and practice today.

DbD_CS_SH_NC_KD_IO

Funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Connections Grant (Canada 150). We also thank our funding partners: Ontario Trillium Foundation, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto City Archives, Ontario Library Association, Faculty of Information, Univ. of Toronto, the McLuhan Center for Culture and Technology at the Faculty of Information, Univ. of Toronto. (Photo: speakers charles c. smith and Samra Habib; with organizers Keren Dali, Nadia Caidi, and Ikem Opara).

DbD_Book

Encounters of the Spiritual Kind: Young Muslims and Social Media

This research examines the emergent practices of young people’s expressions of spiritual and religious identities online, specifically the contemporary manifestations of the pilgrimage tradition (and the fasting of Ramadan), and how information in its multiple forms (textual, spiritual, corporeal, and others) has mediated and shaped the pilgrim’s spiritual, physical, and informational journey.

img_3462 (Used with permission of creator).