Patrick Keilty

Patrick Keilty is Associate Professor in the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto. In addition, he is Archives Director of the Sexual Representation Collection, administered by the Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies. Professor Keilty's research interests can be divided into two areas: the politics of digital infrastructures in the sex industries and the materiality of sexual media. He has published on embodiment and technology, data science, the history of information retrieval, archives, design and experience, graphic design, temporality, and sexual taxonomies. His work spans visual culture, sexual politics, science and technology studies, media studies, information studies, political economy, critical theory, and theories of gender, sexuality, and race.

Through visual analysis, analysis of technical literatures, theories of desire, and interviews with software programmers, interface designers, data scientists, and sex workers, Keilty's monograph project, provisionally titled Database Desires, examines the strategic choices designers make to structure and regulate sexual desire through algorithmic mediation that attempt to softly persuade viewers into continuing to search for an “imagined perfect image." His research projects Sexy Data and Sexual Representation Collection are generously supported by grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). In addition, he is Co-Investigator on Archive/ Counter-Archive, also funded through SSHRC. His forthcoming edited volumes include Queer Data Studies (University of Washington Press) and Handbook of Adult Film and Media (Intellect). He is editor of Feminist & Queer Information Studies Reader (Litwin 2013).

In addition to his appointment in the Faculty of Information, Professor Keilty is cross-appointed with the Cinema Studies Institute, faculty member of University College, affiliated with the Women and Gender Studies Institute, and member of the Technoscience Research Unit. He is currently Co-Chair of the Adult Film History Group in the Society for Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS) and Treasurer of the Sexuality Studies Association. He was co-lead editor for Catalyst: Feminism, Theory, Technoscience from 2017 - 2019 and continues to sit on the Editorial Board.

Professor Keilty teaches courses on digital studies, feminist and queer studies, culture and technology, information infrastructures, and pornography studies. He holds a PhD in Information Studies, concentration in Women's Studies (now Gender Studies), from the University of California, Los Angeles. He has lived in Toronto since 2012, and is originally from Alta Loma, California. Prior to academia, he worked in libraries and archives in Los Angeles, Washington, DC, and London, UK. Check out what he's reading on Goodreads.