Katerina Cizek is an influential figure in international media, with over 25 years of experience as a Peabody- and Emmy-winning documentarian, researcher, author, producer, and senior leader working with collective processes and emergent technologies. At MIT, she is a research scientist, and co-founder of the
Co-Creation Studio at
MIT Open Documentary Lab. She is lead author (with William Uricchio) on the world’s first comprehensive book on co-creating media,
Collective Wisdom, published by MIT Press in 2022. At the studio, she designs and leads innovative incubators, workshops, research projects, delegations, and fellowships fusing art, documentary, and journalism with emergent tech and science.
For over a decade, Cizek worked as a documentary director at the National Film Board of Canada, transforming the organization into a world leader of emergent tech storytelling with the projects
HIGHRISE and
Filmmaker-in-Residence. Founded on both community-based and global partnerships, these two long-form digital projects garnered international awards and critical acclaim. Cizek’s earlier human-rights documentary film projects — on subjects ranging from the handycam media revolution to people smuggling and the Rwandan genocide — instigated criminal investigations, changed United Nations policies, and screened as evidence at an International Criminal Tribunal, as well as on television and at festivals around the world.Currently, Cizek serves on the inaugural Interactive Board of Jurors for the Peabody Awards, amongst others.
